Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/curiositiesoflit41disr 


CURIOSITIES  OF  LITERATURE. 


• 


CURIOSITIES  OF  LITERATURE. 

BY 

ISAAC  DISRAELI. 


WITH  A  VIEW  OF  THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 
OF  THE  AUTHOR. 


BY  HIS  SON. 


IN   FOUR  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  IV. 


FROM  THE  FOURTEENTH  CORRECTED  LONDON  EDITION. 


NEW  YORK: 
SHELDON   AND  COMPANY. 

BOSTON: 
WILLIAM  VEAZIE. 
1863. 


RIVERSIDE,  CAMBRIDGE: 
STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED  BY 
H     0.  HOUGHTON. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  IV. 


PAGE 

LITERARY  UNIONS  7 

OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED  13 

CAUSE  AND  PRETEXT  19 

POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS  .  •  •  .  23 
EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION         •         •         •  .29 

AUTOGRAPHS  44 

THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS  48 

THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS  61 

OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS  71 

"  TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY  !  "  78 

THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH  87 

HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH  ...  95 

THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLLN        ....  105 

OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNO Y  Ill 

THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TREVOUX  120 

QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY     .         .  .125 

"POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM"  131 

TOLERATION  139 

APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE  ....  151 

PREDICTION  157 

DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY  .  .  .  .179 
ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR  .         .         .         .  .197 

LITERARY  FORGERIES  •  205 

OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS  219 

OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME  224 

SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH  233 
JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND  .  239 
THE  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK  244 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

A  BIBLIOGNOSTS  248 

8ECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY  .  .  255 
BUILDINGS  IN  THE  METROPOLIS,  AND  RESIDENCE  IN  THE 

COUNTRY  275 

ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS  284 

TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY  293 

LITERARY  RESIDENCES  310 

WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF     .         .  .317 

DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN  327 

SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY  333 

LITERARY  PARALLELS  346 

THE  PEARL  BIBLES,  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA    .  .349 
VIEW  OF  A  PARTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE  STATE  OF  RE- 
LIGION IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS  356 

BUCKINGHAM'S  POLITICAL  COQUETRY  WITH  THE  PURITANS  367 
SIR    EDWARD    COKE'S    EXCEPTIONS    AGAINST    THE  HIGH 

SHERIFF'S  OATH  371 

SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST  AND  HIS  FIRST 

PARLIAMENTS  372 

THE  RUMP  412 

LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A   LITERARY   ANTIQUARY — OLDYS 

AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS  425 

INDEX  449 


CUKIOSITIES  OF  LITEKATUEE. 


LITERARY  UNIONS. 

SECRET   HISTORY  OF   RAWLEIGH'S   HISTORY   OF   THE  WORLD, 
AND  VASARl'S  LIVES. 

A  union  of  talents,  differing  in  their  qualities,  might  carry 
sgme  important  works  to  a  more  extended  perfection.  In  a 
work  of  great  enterprise,  the  aid  of  a  friendly  hand  may  be 
absolutely  necessary  to  complete  the  labours  of  the  projector, 
who  may  have  neither  the  courage,  the  leisure,  nor  all  neces- 
sary acquisitions  for  performing  the  favourite  task  which  he 
has  otherwise  matured.  Many  great  works,  commenced  by  a 
master-genius,  have  remained  unfinished,  or  have  been  de- 
ficient for  want  of  this  friendly  succour.  The  public  would 
have  been  grateful  to  Johnson,  had  he  united  in  his  diction- 
ary the  labours  of  some  learned  etymologist.  Speed's 
Chronicle  owes  most  of  its  value,  as  it  does  its  ornaments,  to 
the  hand  of  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  and  other  curious  researchers, 
who  contributed  entire  portions.  Goguet's  esteemed  work 
of  the  "  Origin  of  the  Arts  and  Sciences  "  was  greatly  in- 
debted to  the  fraternal  zeal  of  a  devoted  friend.  The  still 
valued  books  of  the  Port-royal  Society,  were  all  formed  by 
this  happy  union.  The  secret  history  of  many  eminent 
works  would  show  the  advantages  which  may  be  derived 
from  that  combination  of  talents,  differing  in  their  nature. 


8 


LITERARY  UNIONS. 


Cumberland's  masterly  versions  of  the  fragments  of  the 
Greek  dramatic  poets  would  never  have  been  given  to  the 
poetical  world,  had  he  not  accidentally  possessed  the  manu- 
script notes  of  his  relative,  the  learned  Bentley.  This 
treasure  supplied  that  research  in  the  most  obscure  works, 
which  the  volatile  studies  of  Cumberland  could  never  have 
explored ;  a  circumstance  which  he  concealed  from  the  world, 
proud  of  the  Greek  erudition  which  he  thus  cheaply  pos- 
sessed. Yet  by  this  literary  union,  Bentley's  vast  erudition 
made  those  researches  which  Cumberland  could  not ;  and 
Cumberland  gave  the  nation  a  copy  of  the  domestic  drama 
of  Greece,  of  which  Bentley  was  incapable. 

There  is  a  large  work,  which  is  still  celebrated,  of  which 
the  composition  has  excited  the  astonishment  even  of  the 
philosophic  Hume,  but  whose  secret  history  remains  yet  to 
be  disclosed.  This  extraordinary  volume  is  "  The  History 
of  the  World  by  Rawleigh."  I  shall  transcribe  Hume's 
observation,  that  the  reader  may  observe  the  literary  pheno- 
menon. "  They  were  struck  with  the  extensive  genius  of 
the  man,  who  being  educated  amidst  naval  and  military  en- 
terprises, had  surpassed  in  the  pursuits  of  literature,  even 
those  of  the  most  recluse  and  sedentary  lives  ;  and  they  ad- 
mired his  unbroken  magnanimity,  which  at  his  age,  and 
under  his  circumstances,  could  engage  him  to  undertake  and 
execute  so  great  a  work,  as  his  History  of  the  World." 
Now  when  the  truth  is  known,  the  wonderful  in  this  literary 
mystery  will  disappear,  except  in  the  eloquent,  the  grand, 
and  the  pathetic  passages  interspersed  in  that  venerable 
volume.  We  may,  indeed,  pardon  the  astonishment  of  our 
calm  philosopher,  when  we  consider  the  recondite  matter 
contained  in  this  work,  and  recollect  the  little  time  which 
this  adventurous  spirit,  whose  life  was  passed  in  fabricating 
his  own  fortune,  and  in  perpetual  enterprise,  could  allow  to 
such  erudite  pursuits.  Where  could  Rawleigh  obtain  that 
familiar  acquaintance  with  the  rabbins,  of  whose  language  he 
was  probably  entirely  ignorant  ?   His  numerous  publications, 


LITERARY  UNIONS. 


S 


the  effusions  of  a  most  active  mind,  though  excellent  in  their 
kind,  were  evidently  composed  by  one  who  was  not  abstracted 
in  curious  and  remote  inquiries,  but  full  of  the  daily  business 
and  the  wisdom  of  human  life.  His  confinement  in  the 
Tower,  which  lasted  several  years,  was  indeed  sufficient  for 
the  composition  of  this  folio  volume,  and  of  a  second  which 
appears  to  have  occupied  him.  But  in  that  imprisonment  it 
singularly  happened  that  he  lived  among  literary  characters, 
with  most  intimate  friendship.  There  he  joined  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland,  the  patron  of  the  philosophers  of  his  age, 
and  with  whom  Rawleigh  pursued  his  chemical  studies ;  and 
Serjeant  Hoskins,  a  poet  and  a  wit,  and  the  poetical  "  father  " 
of  Ben  Jonson,  who  acknowledged  that  "It  was  Hoskins 
who  had  polished  him ; "  and  that  Rawleigh  often  consulted 
Hoskins  on  his  literary  works,  I  learn  from  a  manuscript. 
But  however  literary  the  atmosphere  of  the  Tower  proved 
to  Rawleigh,  no  particle  of  Hebrew,  and  perhaps  little  of 
Grecian  lore,  floated  from  a  chemist  and  a  poet.  The  truth 
is,  that  the  collection  of  the  materials  of  this  history  was  the 
labour  of  several  persons,  who  have  not  all  been  discovered. 
It  has  been  ascertained  that  Ben  Jonson  was  a  considerable 
contributor;  and  there  was  an  English  philosopher  from 
whom  Descartes,  it  is  said  even  by  his  own  countrymen, 
borrowed  largely — Thomas  Hariot,  whom  Anthony  Wood 
charges  with  infusing  into  Rawleigh's  volume  philosophical 
notions,  while  Rawleigh  was  composing  his  History  of  the 
World.  But  if  Rawleigh's  pursuits  surpassed  even  those  of 
the  most  recluse  and  sedentary  lives,  as  Hume  observes,  we 
must  attribute  this  to  a  "Dr.  Robert  Burrel,  Rector  of 
Northwald,  in  the  county  of  Norfolk,  who  was  a  great 
favourite  of  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh,  and  had  been  his 
chaplain.  All,  or  the  greatest  part  of  the  drudgery  of  Sir 
Walter's  History  for  criticisms,  chronology,  and  reading 
Greek  and  Hebrew  authors,  were  performed  by  him,  for 
Sir  Walter."  *  Thus  a  simple  fact,  when  discovered,  clears 
*  I  draw  my  information  from  a  very  singular  manuscript  in  the  Lans- 


10 


LITERAKY  UNIONS. 


up  the  whole  mystery ;  and  we  learn  how  that  knowledge 
was  acquired,  which,  as  Hume  sagaciously  detected,  required 
"a  recluse  and  sedentary  life,"  such  as  the  studies  and  the 
habits  of  a  country  clergyman  would  have  been  in  a  learned 
age. 

The  secret  history  of  another  work,  still  more  celebrated 
than  the  History  of  the  World,  by  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh,  will 
doubtless  surprise  its  numerous  admirers. 

Without  the  aid  of  a  friendly  hand,  we  should  probably 
have  been  deprived  of  the  delightful  history  of  Artists  by 
Vasari :  although  a  mere  painter  and  goldsmith,  and  not  a 
literary  man,  Vasari  was  blessed  with  the  nice  discernment 
of  one  deeply  conversant  with  art,  and  saw  rightly  what  was 
to  be  done,  when  the  idea  of  the  work  was  suggested  by  the 
celebrated  Paulus  Jovius  as  a  supplement  to  his  own  work 
of  the  "  Eulogiums  of  illustrious  men."  Vasari  approved  of 
the  project ;  but  on  that  occasion  judiciously  observed,  not 
blinded  by  the  celebrity  of  the  literary  man  who  projected  it, 
that  "  It  would  require  the  assistance  of  an  artist  to  collect 
the  materials,  and  arrange  them  in  their  proper  order ;  for 
although  Jovius  displayed  great  knowledge  in  his  observa- 

downe  collection,  which  I  think  has  been  mistaken  for  a  boy's  ciphering 
book,  of  which  it  has  much  the  appearance,  No.  741,  fo.  57,  as  it  stands  in 
the  auctioneer's  catalogue.  It  appears  to  be  a  collection  closely  written, 
extracted  out  of  Anthony  Wood's  papers ;  and  as  I  have  discovered  in  the 
manuscript,  numerous  notices  not  elsewhere  preserved,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  transcriber  copied  them  from  that  mass  of  Anthony  Wood's 
papers,  of  which  more  than  one  sack  full  was  burnt  at  his  desire  before  him 
when  dying.  If  it  be  so,  this  MS.  is  the  only  register  of  many  curious  facts. 

Ben  Jonson  has  been  too  freely  censured  for  his  own  free  censures,  and 
particularly  for  one  he  made  on  Sir  Walter  Eawleigh,  who,  he  told  Drum- 
mond,  "  esteemed  more  fame  than  conscience.  The  best  wits  in  England 
were  employed  in  making  his  History ;  Ben  himself  had  written  a  piece  to 
him  of  the  Punic  War,  which  he  altered  and  set  in  his  book."  Jonson's 
powerful  advocate,  Mr.  Gifford,  has  not  alleged  a  word  in  the  defence  of 
our  great  Bard's  free  conversational  strictures;  the  secret  history  of  Raw- 
leigh's  great  work  had  never  been  discovered;  on  this  occasion,  however, 
Jonson  only  spoke  what  he  knew  to  be  true — and  there  may  have  been 
other  truths,  in  those  conversations  which  were  set  down  at  random  by 
Drummond,  who  may  have  chiefly  recollected  the  satirical  touches. 


LITERARY  UNIONS. 


11 


tions,  yet  he  had  not  been  equally  accurate  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  his  facts  in  his  book  of  Eulogiuras."  Afterwards, 
when  Vasari  began  to  collect  his  information,  and  consulted 
Paulus  Jovius  on  the  plan,  although  that  author  highly  ap- 
proved of  what  he  saw,  he  alleged  his  own  want  of  leisure 
and  ability  to  complete  such  an  enterprise  ;  and  this  was  for- 
tunate :  we  should  otherwise  have  had,  instead  of  the  rambling 
spirit  which  charms  us  in  the  volumes  of  Yasari,  the  verbose 
babble  of  a  declaimer.  Vasari,  however,  looked  round  for 
the  assistance  he  wanted ;  a  circumstance  which  Tiraboschi 
has  not  noticed :  like  Hogarth,  he  required  a  literary  man 
for  his  scribe.  I  have  discovered  the  name  of  the  chief  writer 
of  the  Lives  of  the  Painters,  who  wrote  under  the  direction 
of  Vasari,  and  probably  often  used  his  own  natural  style,  and 
conveyed  to  us  those  reflections  which  surely  come  from  their 
source.  I  shall  give  the  passage,  as  a  curious  instance  where 
the  secret  history  of  books  is  often  detected  in  the  most  ob- 
scure corners  of  research.  Who  could  have  imagined  that 
in  a  collection  of  the  lives  de'  Santi  e  Beati  delV  or  dine  de' 
Predicatori,  we  are  to  look  for  the  writer  of  Vasari's  lives  ? 
Don  Serafini  Razzi,  the  author  of  this  ecclesiastical  biogra- 
phy, has  this  reference  :  "  Who  would  see  more  of  this  may 
turn  to  the  lives  of  the  painters,  sculptors,  and  architects, 
written  for  the  greater  part  by  Don  Silvano  Razzi,  my 
brother,  for  the  Signor  Cavaliere  M.  Giorgio  Vasari,  his 
great  friend."  * 

The  discovery  that  Vasari's  volumes  were  not  entirely 
written  by  himself,  though  probably  under  his  dictation,  and 
unquestionably,  with  his  communications,  as  we  know  that 
Dr.  Morell  wrote  the  "  Analysis  of  Beauty "  for  Hogarth, 
will  perhaps  serve  to  clear  up  some  unaccountable  mistakes 

*  I  find  this  quotation  in  a  sort  of  polemical  work  of  natural  philosophy, 
entitled  "  Saggio  di  Storia  Litteraria  Fiorentina  del  Secolo  XVII.  da  Gio- 
vanne  Clemente  Nelli,  Lucca,  1759,"  p.  68.  Nelli  also  refers  to  what  he 
had  said  on  this  subject  in  his  "  Piante  ad  alzati  di  S.  M.  del  Fiore,  p.  vi. 
e.  vii. ;"  a  work  on  architecture.  See  Brunet;  and  Haym,  Bib.  ItaL  d£ 
Libri  rari. 


12 


LITERARY  UNIONS. 


or  omissions  which  appear  in  that  series  of  volumes,  written 
at  long  intervals,  and  by  different  hands.  Mr.  Fuseli  has 
alluded  to  them  in  utter  astonishment ;  and  cannot  account 
for  Vasari's  "  incredible  dereliction  of  reminiscence,  which 
prompted  him  to  transfer  what  he  had  rightly  ascribed  to 
Giorgione  in  one  edition  to  the  elder  Parma  in  the  subse- 
quent ones."  Again  :  Vasari's  "  memory  was  either  so 
treacherous,  or  his  rapidity  in  writing  so  inconsiderate, 
that  his  account  of  the  Capella  Sistina,  and  the  stanze  of 
Raffaello,  is  a  mere  heap  of  errors  and  unpardonable  con- 
fusion." Even  Bottari,  his  learned  editor,  is  at  a  loss  how  to 
account  for  his  mistakes.  Mr.  Fuseli  finely  observes,  "  He 
has  been  called  the  Herodotus  of  our  art ;  and  if  the  main 
simplicity  of  his  narrative,  and  the  desire  of  heaping  anec- 
dote on  anecdote,  entitle  him  in  some  degree  to  that  appella- 
tion, we  ought  not  to  forget  that  the  information  of  every  day 
adds  something  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Greek  historian, 
whilst  every  day  furnishes  matter  to  question  the  credibility 
of  the  Tuscan."  All  this  strongly  confirms  the  suspicion 
that  Vasari  employed  different  hands  at  different  times  to 
write  out  his  work.  Such  mistakes  would  occur  to  a  new 
writer,  not  always  conversant  with  the  subject  he  was  com- 
posing on,  and  the  disjointed  materials  of  which  were  often 
found  in  a  disordered  state.  It  is,  however, '  strange  that 
neither  Bottari  nor  Tiraboschi  appear  to  have  been  aware 
that  Vasari  employed  others  to  write  for  him-;  we  see  that 
from  the  first  suggestion  of  the  work  he  had  originally  pro- 
posed that  Paulus  Jovius  should  hold  the  pen  for  him. 

The  principle  illustrated  in  this  article  might  be  pursued  ; 
but  the  secret  history  of  two  great  works  so  well  known  are 
as  sufficient  as  twenty  others  of  writings  less  celebrated. 
The  literary  phenomenon  which  had  puzzled  the  calm  in- 
quiring Hume  to  cry  out  "  a  miracle  ! "  has  been  solved  by 
the  discovery  of  a  little  fact  on  Literary  Unions,  which 
derives  importance  from  this  circumstance.* 
*  Mr.  Patrick  Fraser  Tytler,  in  his  recent  biography  of  Sir  Waltef 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 


13 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 

There  are  objects  connected  with  literary  curiosity,  whose 
very  history,  though  they  may  never  gratify  our  sight,  is 
literary  ;  and  the  originality  of  their  invention,  should  they 
excite  imitation,  may  serve  to  constitute  a  class.  I  notice  a 
book-curiosity  of  this  nature. 

This  extraordinary  volume  may  be  said  to  have  contained 
the  travels  and  adventures  of  Charles  Magius,  a  noble  Vene- 
tian ;  and  this  volume,  so  precious,  consisted  only  of  eighteen 
pages,  composed  of  a  series  of  highly-finished  miniature 
paintings  on  vellum,  some  executed  by  the  hand  of  Paul 
Veronese.  Each  page,  however,  may  be  said  to  contain 
many  chapters  ;  for,  generally,  it  is  composed  of  a  large 
centre-piece,  surrounded  by  ten  small  ones,  with  many  apt 
inscriptions,  allegories,  and  allusions  ;  the  whole  exhibiting 
romantic  incidents  in  the  life  of  this  Venetian  nobleman. 
But  it  is  not  merely  as  a  beautiful  production  of  art  that  we 
are  to  consider  it ;  it  becomes  associated  with  a  more  elevated 
feeling  in  the  occasion  which  produced  it.  The  author,  who 
is,himself  the  hero,  after  having  been  long  calumniated,  re- 
solved to  set  before  the  eyes  of  his  accusers  the  sufferings 
and  adventures  he  could  perhaps  have  but  indifferently  de- 

Kawleigh,  a  work  of  vigorous  research  and  elegant  composition,  has  dedi- 
cated to  me  a  supernumerary  article  in  his  Appendix,  entitled  Mr.  Z>' Is- 
raeli's Errors  ! 

He  has  inferred  from  the  present  article,  that  I  denied  that  Rawleigh 
was  the  writer  of  his  own  great  work ! — because  I  have  shown  how  great 
works  may  be  advantageously  pursued  by  the  aid  of  "  Literary  Union." 
It  is  a  monstrous  inference !  The  chimrera  which  plays  before  his  eyes  is 
his  own  contrivance ;  he  starts  at  his  own  phantasmagoria,  and  leaves  me, 
after  all,  to  fight  with  his  shadow. 

Mr.  Tytler  has  not  contradicted  a  single  statement  of  mine.  I  have  care- 
fully read  his  article  and  my  own,  and  I  have  made  no  alteration. 

I  may  be  allowed  to  add  that  there  is  much  redundant  matter  in  tbe 
article  of  Mr.  Tytler;  and,  to  use  the  legal  style,  there  is  much  "  imperti- 
nence," which,  with  a  little  candour  and  more  philosophy,  he  would  strike 
his  pen  through,  as  sound  lawyers  do  on  these  occasions. 


14 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 


scribed :  and  instead  of  composing  a  tedious  volume  for  his 
justification,  invented  this  new  species  of  pictorial  biography. 
The  author  minutely  described  the  remarkable  situations  in 
which  fortune  had  placed  him  ;  and  the  artists,  in  embellish- 
ing the  facts  he  furnished  them  with  to  record,  emulated  each 
other  in  giving  life  to  their  truth,  and  putting  into  action,  be- 
fore the  spectator,  incidents  which  the  pen  had  less  impres- 
sively exhibited.  This  unique  production  may  be  considered 
as  a  model  to  represent  the  actions  of  those  who  may  succeed 
more  fortunately  by  this  new  mode  of  perpetuating  their  his- 
tory ;  discovering,  by  the  aid  of  the  pencil,  rather  than  by 
their  pen,  the  forms  and  colours  of  an  extraordinary  life. 

It  was  when  the  Ottomans  (about  1571)  attacked  the  Isle 
of  Cyprus,  that  this  Venetian  nobleman  was  charged  by  his 
republic  to  review  and  repair  the  fortifications.  He  was 
afterwards  sent  to  the  pope  to  negotiate  an  alliance:  he 
returned  to  the  senate  to  give  an  account  of  his  commission. 
Invested  with  the  chief  command,  at  the  head  of  his  troops, 
Magius  threw  himself  into  the  island  of  Cyprus,  and  after  a 
skilful  defence,  which  could  not  prevent  its  fall,  at  Famagusta 
he  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Turks,  and  made  a  slave.  His 
age  and  infirmities  induced  his  master,  at  length,  to  sell  him 
to  some  Christian  merchants  ;  and  after  an  absence  of  several 
years  from  his  beloved  Venice,  he  suddenly  appeared,  to  the 
astonishment  and  mortification  of  a  party  who  had  never 
ceased  to  calumniate  him  ;  while  his  own  noble  family  were 
compelled  to  preserve  an  indignant  silence,  having  had  no 
communications  with  their  lost  and  enslaved  relative.  Magius 
now  returned  to  vindicate  his  honour,  to  reinstate  himself  in 
the  favour  of  the  senate,  and  to  be  restored  to  a  venerable 
parent  amidst  his  family ;  to  whom  he  introduced  a  fresh 
branch,  in  a  youth  of  seven  years  old,  the  child  of  his  mis- 
fortunes, who,  born  in  trouble,  and  a  stranger  to  domestic 
endearments,  was  at  one  moment  united  to  a  beloved  circle 
of  relations. 

I  shall  give  a  rapid  view  of  some  of  the  pictures  of  this 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 


15 


Venetian  nobleman's  life.  The  whole  series  has  been  elabor- 
ately drawn  up  by  the  Duke  de  la  Valliere,  the  celebrated 
book-collector,  who  dwells  on  the  detail  with  the  curiosity  of 
an  amateur.* 

In  a  rich  frontispiece,  a  Christ  is  expiring  on  the  cross ; 
Religion,  leaning  on  a  column,  contemplates  the  Divinity, 
and  Hope  is  not  distant  from  her.  The  genealogical  tree  of 
the  house  of  Magius,  with  an  allegorical  representation  of 
Venice,  its  nobility,  power,  and  riches :  the  arms  of  Magius, 
in  which  is  inserted  a  view  of  the  holy  sepulchre  of  Jeru- 
salem, of  which  he  was  made  a  knight ;  his  portrait,  with  a 
Latin  inscription :  "  I  have  passed  through  arms  and  the 
enemy,  amidst  fire  and  water,  and  the  Lord  conducted  me  to 
a  safe  asylum,  in  the  year  of  grace  1571."  The  portrait  of 
his  son,  aged  seven  years,  finished  with  the  greatest  beauty, 
and  supposed  to  have  come  from  the  hand  of  Paul  Veronese ; 
it  bears  this  inscription :  "  Overcome  by  violence  and  arti- 
fice, almost  dead  before  his  birth,  his  mother  was  at  length 
delivered  of  him,  full  of  life,  with  all  the  loveliness  of  in- 
fancy ;  under  the  divine  protection,  his  birth  was  happy,  and 
his  life  with  greater  happiness  shall  be  closed  with  good 
fortune." 

A  plan  of  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  where  Magius  commanded, 
and  his  first  misfortune  happened,  his  slavery  by  the  Turks. 
— The  painter  has  expressed  this  by  an  emblem  of  a  tree 
shaken  by  the  winds  and  scathed  by  the  lightning ;  but  from 
the  trunk  issues  a  beautiful  green  branch  shining  in  a  brilliant 
sun,  with  this  device — "  From  this  fallen  trunk  springs  a 
branch  full  of  vigour." 

The  missions  of  Magius  to  raise  troops  in  the  province  of 

*  The  duke's  description  is  not  to  be  found,  as  might  be  expected,  in 
his  own  valued  catalogue,  but  was  a  contribution  to  Gaignat's,  ii.  16, 
where  it  occupies  fourteen  pages.  This  singular  work  sold  at  Gaignat's 
sale  for  902  livres.  It  was  then  the  golden  age  of  literary  curiosity,  when 
the  rarest  things  were  not  ruinous ;  and  that  price  was  even  then  con- 
sidered extraordinary,  though  the  work  was  an  unique.  It  must  consist 
of  about  180  subjects,  by  Italian  artists. 


16 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 


la  Puglia. — In  one  of  these  Magius  is  seen  returning  to 
Venice ;  his  final  departure, — a  thunderbolt  is  viewed  falling 
on  his  vessel — his  passage  by  Corfu  and  Zante,  and  his 
arrival  at  Candia. 

His  travels  to  Egypt. — The  centre  figure  represents  this 
province  raising  its  right  hand  extended  towards  a  palm-tree, 
and  the  left  leaning  on  a  pyramid,  inscribed  "  Celebrated 
throughout  the  world  for  her  wonders."  The  smaller  pictures 
are  the  entrance  of  Magius  into  the  port  of  Alexandria; 
Rosetta,  with  a  caravan  of  Turks  and  different  nations ;  the 
city  of  Grand  Cairo,  exterior  and  interior,  with  views  of 
other  places  ;  and  finally,  his  return  to  Venice. 

His  journey  to  Rome. — The  centre  figure  an  armed  Pallas 
seated  on  trophies,  the  Tyber  beneath  her  feet,  a  globe  in  her 
hands,  inscribed  Quod  rerum  victrix  ac  domina — "  Because 
she  is  the  Conqueress  and  Mistress  of  the  World."  The  ten 
small  pictures  are  views  of  the  cities  in  the  pope's  dominion. 
His  first  audience  at  the  conclave  forms  a  pleasing  and  fine 
composition. 

His  travels  into  Syria. — The  principal  figure  is  a  female, 
emblematical  of  that  fine  country ;  she  is  seated  in  the  midst 
of  a  gay  orchard,  and  embraces  a  bundle  of  roses,  inscribed 
Mundi  delicice — "  The  delight  of  the  universe."  The  small 
compartments  are  views  of  towns  and  ports,  and  the  spot 
where  Magius  collected  his  fleet. 

His  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  where  he  was  made  a  knight 
of  the  holy  sepulchre. — The  principal  figure  represents  De- 
votion, inscribed  Ducit.  "  It  is  she  who  conducts  me."  The 
compartments  exhibit  a  variety  of  objects,  with  a  correctness 
of  drawing,  which  are  described  as  belonging  to  the  class, 
and  partaking  of  the  charms,  of  the  pencil  of  Claude  Lor- 
raine. His  vessel  is  first  viewed  in  the  roadstead  at  Venice 
beat  by  a  storm ;  arrives  at  Zante  to  refresh ;  enters  the 
port  of  Simiso ;  there  having  landed,  he  and  his  companions 
are  proceeding  to  the  town  on  asses,  for  Christians  were  not 
permitted  to  travel  in  Turkey  on  horses. — In  the  church  at 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 


17 


Jerusalem  the  bishop,  in  his  pontifical  habit,  receives  him  as 
a  knight  of  the  holy  sepulchre,  arraying  him  in  the  armour 
of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  and  placing  his  sword  in  the  hands 
of  Magius.  His  arrival  at  Bethlehem,  to  see  the  cradle  of 
the  Lord — and  his  return  by  Jaffa  with  his  companions,  in 
the  dress  of  pilgrims  ;  the  groups  are  finely  contrasted  with 
the  Turks  mingling  amongst  them. 

The  taking  of  the  city  of  Famagusta,  and  his  slavery. — 
The  middle  figure,  with  a  dog  at  its  feet  represents  Fidelity, 
the  character  of  Magius,  who  ever  preferred  it  to  his  life  or 
his  freedom,  inscribed  Captivat — "  She  has  reduced  me  to 
slavery."  Six  smaller  pictures  exhibit  the  different  points  of 
the  island  of  Cyprus,  where  the  Turks  effected  their  descents. 
Magius  retreating  to  Famagusta,  which  he  long  defended, 
and  where  his  cousin,  a  skilful  engineer,  was  killed.  The 
Turks  compelled  to  raise  the  siege,  but  return  with  greater 
forces — the  sacking  of  the  town  and  the  palace,  where 
Magius  was  taken. — One  picture  exhibits  him  brought  before 
a  bashaw,  who  has  him  stripped,  to  judge  of  his  strength  and 
fix  his  price,  when,  after  examination,  he  is  sent  among  other 
slaves.  He  is  seen  bound  and  tied  up  among  his  companions 
in  misfortune — again  he  is  forced  to  labour,  and  carries  a 
cask  of  water  on  his  shoulders. — In  another  picture,  his 
master,  finding  him  weak  of  body,  conducts  him  to  a  slave 
merchant  to  sell  him.  In  another  we  see  him  leading  an  ass 
loaded  with  packages  ;  his  new  master,  finding  him  loitering 
on  his  way,  showers  his  blows  on  him,  while  a  soldier  is  seen 
purloining  one  of  the  packages  from  the  ass.  Another  ex- 
hibits Magius  sinking  with  fatigue  on  the  sands,  while  his 
master  would  raise  him  up  by  an  unsparing  use  of  the  basti- 
nado. The  varied  details  of  these  little  paintings  are  pleas- 
ingly executed. 

The  close  of  his  slavery. — The  middle  figure  kneeling  to 
heaven,  and  a  light  breaking  from  it,  inscribed  "  He  breaks 
my  chains,"  to  express  the  confidence  of  Magius.  The 
Turks  are  seen  landing  with  their  pillage  and  their  slaves. — 

VOL.  IV.  2 


18 


OF  A  BIOGRAPHY  PAINTED. 


In  one  of  the  pictures  are  seen  two  ships  on  fire  ;  a  young 
lady  of  Cyprus  preferring  death  to  the  loss  of  her  honour 
and  the  miseries  of  slavery,  determined  to  set  fire  to  the 
vessel  in  which  she  was  carried;  she  succeeded,  and  the 
flames  communicated  to  another. 

His  return  to  Venice. — The  painter  for  his  principal 
figure  has  chosen  a  Pallas,  with  a  helmet  on  her  head,  the 
aegis  on  one  arm,  and  her  lance  in  the  other,  to  describe  the 
courage  with  which  Magius  had  supported  his  misfortunes, 
inscribed  Reducit — "  She  brings  me  back."  In  the  last  of 
the  compartments  he  is  seen  at  the  custom-house  at  Venice ; 
he  enters  the  house  of  his  father;  the  old  man  hastens  to 
meet  him,  and  embraces  him. 

One  page  is  filled  by  a  single  picture,  which  represents  the 
senate  of  Venice,  with  the  Doge  on  his  throne;  Magius 
presents  an  account  of  his  different  employments,  and  holds 
in  his  hand  a  scroll,  on  which  is  written  Quod  commisisti 
perfect;  quod  restat  agendum,  pare  fide  complectar — "I 
have  done  what  you  committed  to  my  care  ;  and  I  will  per- 
form with  the  same  fidelity  what  remains  to  be  done."  He 
is  received  by  the  senate  with  the  most  distinguished  honours, 
and  is  not  only  justified,  but  praised  and  honoured. 

The  most  magnificent  of  these  paintings  is  the  one  attrib- 
uted to  Paul  Veronese.  It  is  described  by  the  Duke  de  la 
Valliere  as  almost  unparalleled  for  its  richness,  its  elegance, 
and  its  brilliancy.  It  is  inscribed  Pater  mens  etfratres  met 
dereliquerunt  me  ;  Dcminus  autem  assumpsit  me  ! — "  My 
father  and  my  brothers  abandoned  me  ;  but  the  Lord  took 
me  under  his  protection."  This  is  an  allusion  to  the  accusa- 
tion raised  against  him  in  the  open  senate  when  the  Turks 
took  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  and  his  family  wanted  either  the  con- 
fidence or  the  courage  to  defend  Magius.  In  the  front  of  this 
large  picture,  Magius  leading  his  son  by  the  hand,  conducts 
him  to  be  reconciled  with  his  brothers  and  sisters-in-law,  who 
are  on  the  opposite  side  ;  his  hand  holds  this  scroll,  Vos  cogi- 
tastis  de  me  malum;  sed  Deus  convertit  illud  in  bonum — 


CAUSE  AND  PRETEXT. 


19 


"  You  thought  ill  of  me ;  but  the  Lord  has  turned  it  to  good." 
In  this  he  alludes  to  the  satisfaction  he  had  given  the  senate, 
and  to  the  honours  they  had  decreed  him.  Another  scene  is 
introduced,  where  Magius  appears  in  a  magnificent  hall  at  a 
table  in  the  midst  of  all  his  family,  with  whom  a  general  recon- 
ciliation has  taken  place :  on  his  left  hand  are  gardens  open- 
ing with  an  enchanting  effect,  and  magnificently  ornamented, 
with  the  villa  of  his  father,  on  which  flowers  and  wreaths 
seem  dropping  on  the  roof,  as  if  from  heaven.  In  the  per- 
spective, the  landscape  probably  represents  the  rural  neigh- 
bourhood of  Magius's  early  days. 

Such  are  the  most  interesting  incidents  which  I  have 
selected  from  the  copious  description  of  the  Duke  de  la 
Valliere.  The  idea  of  this  production  is  new :  an  auto- 
biography in  a  series  of  remarkable  scenes,  painted  under  the 
eye  of  the  describer  of  them,  in  which  too  he  has  preserved 
all  the  fulness  of  his  feelings  and  his  minutest  recollections ; 
but  the  novelty  becomes  interesting  from  the  character  of  the 
noble  Magius,  and  the  romantic  fancy  which  inspired  this 
elaborate  and  costly  curiosity.  It  was  not  indeed  without 
some  trouble  that  I  have  drawn  up  this  little  account ;  but 
while  thus  employed,  I  seemed  to  be  composing  a  very 
uncommon  romance. 


CAUSE  AND  PRETEXT. 

It  is  an  important  principle  in  morals  and  in  politics,  not 
to  mistake  the  cause  for  the  pretext,  nor  the  pretext  for  the 
cause,  and  by  this  means  to  distinguish  between  the  concealed 
and  the  ostensible  motive.  On  this  principle,  history  might 
be  recomposed  in  a  new  manner  ;  it  would  not  often  describe 
circumstances  and  characters  as  they  usually  appear.  When 
we  mistake  the  characters  of  men,  we  mistake  the  nature  of 
their  actions,  and  we  shall  find  in  the  study  of  secret  history, 


20 


CAUSE  AND  PRETEXT. 


that  some  of  the  most  important  events  in  modern  history 
were  produced  from  very  different  motives  than  their  osten- 
sible ones.  Polybius,  the  most  philosophical  writer  of  the 
ancients,  has  marked  out  this  useful  distinction  of  cause  and 
pretext,  and  aptly  illustrates  the  observation  by  the  facts 
which  he  explains.  Amilcar,  for  instance,  was  the  first  au- 
thor and  contriver  of  the  second  Punic  war,  though  he  died 
ten  years  before  the  commencement  of  it.  "  A  statesman," 
says  the  wise  and  grave  historian,  "  who  knows  not  how  to 
trace  the  origin  of  events,  and  discern  the  different  sources 
from  whence  they  take  their  rise,  may  be  compared  to  a  phy- 
sician, who  neglects  to  inform  himself  of  the  causes  of  those 
distempers  which  he  is  called  in  to  cure.  Our  pains  can 
never  be  better  employed  than  in  searching  out  the  causes 
of  events ;  for  the  most  trifling  incidents  give  birth  to  matters 
of  the  greatest  moment  and  importance."  The  latter  part 
of  this  remark  of  Polybius  points  out  another  principle  which 
has  been  often  verified  by  history,  and  which  furnished  the 
materials  of  the  little  book  of  "  Grands  Evenemens  par  les 
petites  Causes." 

Our  present  inquiry  concerns  "  cause  and  pretext." 

Leo  X.  projected  an  alliance  of  the  sovereigns  of  Christen- 
dom against  the  Turks.  The  avowed  object  was  to  oppose 
the  progress  of  the  Ottomans  against  the  Mamelukes  of 
Egypt,  who  were  more  friendly  to  the  Christians  ;  but  the 
concealed  motive  with  his  holiness  was  to  enrich  himself  and 
his  family  with  the  spoils  of  Christendom,  and  to  aggrandize 
the  papal  throne  by  war ;  and  such,  indeed,  the  policy  of 
these  pontiffs  had  always  been  in  those  mad  crusades  which 
they  excited  against  the  East. 

The  Reformation,  excellent  as  its  results  have  proved  in 
the  cause  of  genuine  freedom,  originated  in  no  purer  source 
than  human  passions  and  selfish  motives  :  it  was  the  progeny 
of  avarice  in  Germany,  of  novelty  in  France,  and  of  love  in 
England.  The  latter  is  elegantly  alluded  to  by  Gray  :  — 
"  And  gospel-light  first  beam'd  from  Bullen's  eyes." 


CAUSE  AND  PRETEXT. 


21 


The  Reformation  is  considered  by  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  in  a 
work  printed  in  1590,  as  it  had  been  by  Francis  L,  in  his 
Apology  in  1537,  as  a  coup-d'etat  of  Charles  V.  towards  uni- 
versal monarchy.  The  duke  says,  that  the  emperor  silently 
permitted  Luther  to  establish  his  principles  in  Germany,  that 
they  might  split  the  confederacy  of  the  elective  princes,  and 
by  this  division  facilitate  their  more  easy  conquest,  and  play 
them  off  one  against  another,  and  by  these  means  to  secure 
the  imperial  crown,  hereditary  in  the  house  of  Austria.  Had 
Charles  V.  not  been  the  mere  creature  of  his  politics,  and  had 
he  felt  any  zeal  for  the  Catholic  cause,  which  he  pretended  to 
fight  for,  never  would  he  have  allowed  the  new  doctrines 
to  spread  for  more  than  twenty  years  without  the  least 
opposition. 

The  famous  league  in  France  was  raised  for  "  religion  and 
the  relief  of  public  grievances  ; "  such  was  the  pretext ! 
After  the  princes  and  the  people  had  alike  become  its  vic- 
tims, this  "  league "  was  discovered  to  have  been  formed  by 
the  pride  and  the  ambition  of  the  Guises,  aided  by  the  machi- 
nations of  the  Jesuits  against  the  attempts  of  the  Prince  of 
Conde  to  dislodge  them  from  their  "  seat  of  power."  While 
the  Huguenots  pillaged,  burnt,  and  massacred,  declaring  in 
their  manifestoes  that  they  were  only  fighting  to  release  the 
king,  whom  they  asserted  was  a  prisoner  of  the  Guises ;  the 
Catholics  repaid  them  with  the  same  persecution  and  the 
same  manifestoes,  declaring  that  they  only  wished  to  liberate 
the  Prince  of  Conde,  who  was  the  prisoner  of  the  Huguenots. 
The  people  were  led  on  by  the  cry  of  "  religion ; "  but  this 
civil  war  was  not  in  reality  so  much  Catholic  against  Hugue- 
not, as  Guise  against  Conde.  A  parallel  event  occurred  be- 
tween our  Charles  I.  and  the  Scotch  covenanters  ;  and  the 
king  expressly  declared,  in  "  a  large  declaration,  concerning 
the  late  tumults  in  Scotland,"  that  "  religion  is  only  pretended, 
and  used  by  them  as  a  cloak  to  palliate  their  intended  rebel- 
lion" which  he  demonstrated  by  the  facts  he  alleged.  There 
was  a  revolutionary  party  in  France,  which,  taking  the  name 


22 


CAUSE  AND  PRETEXT. 


of  Frondeurs,  shook  that  kingdom  under  the  administration 
of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  and  held  out  for  their  pretext  the  public 
freedom.  But  that  faction,  composed  of  some  of  the  discon- 
tented French  princes  and  the  mob,  was  entirely  organized 
by  Cardinal  de  Retz,  who  held  them  in  hand,  to  check  or  to 
spur  them  as  the  occasion  required,  from  a  mere  personal 
pique  against  Mazarin,  who  had  not  treated  that  vivacious 
genius  with  all  the  deference  he  exacted.  This  appears  from 
his  own  Memoirs. 

We  have  smiled  at  James  I.  threatening  the  states-general 
by  the  English  ambassador,  about  Vorstius,  a  Dutch  profes- 
sor, who  had  espoused  the  doctrines  of  Arminius  against 
those  of  the  contra-remonstrants,  or  Calvinists  ;  the  osten- 
sible subject  was  religious,  or  rather  metaphysical-religious 
doctrines,  but  the  concealed  one  was  a  struggle  for  predomi- 
nance between  the  Pensionary  Barnevelt,  assisted  by  the 
French  interest,  and  the  Prince  of  Orange,  supported  by  the 
English.  "  These  were  the  real  sources,"  says  Lord  Hard- 
wicke,  a  statesman  and  a  man  of  letters,  deeply  conversant 
with  secret  and  public  history,  and  a  far  more  able  judge 
than  Diodati  the  Swiss  divine,  and  Brandt  the  ecclesiastical 
historian,  who  in  the  Synod  of  Dort  could  see  nothing  but 
what  appeared  in  it ;  and  gravely  narrated  the  idle  squabbles 
on  phrases  concerning  predestination  or  grace.  Hales,  of 
Eaton,  who  was  secretary  to  the  English  ambassador  at  this 
synod,  perfectly  accords  with  the  account  of  Lord  Hardwicke. 
"  Our  synod,"  writes  that  judicious  observer,  "  goes  on  like  a 
watch  ;  the  main  wheels  upon  which  the  whole  business  turns 
are  least  in  sight ;  for  all  things  of  moment  are  acted  in  pri- 
vate sessions ;  what  is  done  in  public  is  only  for  show  and 
entertainment.'" 

The  cause  of  the  persecution  of  the  Jansenists  was  the 
jealousy  of  the  Jesuits ;  the  pretext  was  la  grace  suffisante. 
The  learned  La  Croze  observes,  that  the  same  circumstance 
occurred  in  the  affair  of  Nestorius  and  the  church  of  Alex- 
andria ;   the  pretext  was  orthodoxy,  the  cause  was  the 


POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 


23 


jealousy  of  the  church  of  Alexandria;  or  rather  the  fiery 
and  turbulent  Cyril,  who  personally  hated  Nestorius.  The 
opinions  of  Nestorius,  and  the  council  which  condemned 
them,  were  the  same  in  effect.  I  only  produce  this  remote 
fact  to  prove  that  ancient  times  do  not  alter  the  truth  of  our 
principle. 

When  James  II.  was  so  strenuous  an  advocate  for  tolera- 
tion and  liberty  of  conscience  in  removing  the  test  act,  this 
enlightened  principle  of  government  was  only  a  pretext  with 
that  monk-ridden  monarch ;  it  is  well  known  that  the  came 
was  to  introduce  and  make  the  catholics  predominant  in  his 
councils  and  government.  The  result,  which  that  eager  and 
blind  politician  hurried  on  too  fast,  and  which  therefore  did 
not  take  place,  would  have  been,  that  "  liberty  of  conscience  " 
would  soon  have  become  an  "  overt  act  of  treason,"  before  an 
inquisition  of  his  Jesuits  ! 

In  all  political  affairs  drop  the  pretexts  and  strike  at  the 
causes  ;  we  may  thus  understand  what  the  heads  of  parties 
may  choose  to  conceal. 


POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 

A  writer,  whose  learning  gives  value  to  his  eloquence, 
in  his  Bampton  Lectures  has  censured,  with  that  liberal  spirit 
so  friendly  to  the  cause  of  truth,  the  calumnies  and  rumours 
of  parties,  which  are  still  industriously  retailed,  though  they 
have  been  often  confuted.  Forged  documents  are  still  re- 
ferred to,  or  tales  unsupported  by  evidence  are  confidently 
quoted.  Mr.  Heber's  subject  confined  his  inquiries  to  theo- 
logical history ;  he  has  told  us  that  "  Augustin  is  not 
ashamed,  in  his  dispute  with  Faustus,  to  take  advantage  of 
the  popular  slanders  against  the  followers  of  Manes,  though 
his  own  experience,  for  he  had  himself  been  of  that  sect, 
was  sufficient  to  detect  this  falsehood."    The  Romanists,  in 


24 


POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 


spite  of  satisfactory  answers,  have  continued  to  urge  against 
the  English  protestant  the  romance  of  Parker's  consecration ; 
while  the  protestant  persists  in  falsely  imputing  to  the 
catholic  public  formularies  the  systematic  omission  of  the 
second  commandment.  "  The  calumnies  of  Rimius  and 
Stinstra  against  the  Moravian  brethren  are  cases  in  point," 
continues  Mr.  Heber.  u  No  one  now  believes  them,  yet  they 
once  could  deceive  even  Warburton  ! "  We  may  also  add 
the  obsolete  calumny  of  Jews  crucifying  boys — of  which  a 
monument  raised  to  Hugh  of  Lincoln  perpetuates  the 
memory,  and  which  a  modern  historian  records  without  any 
scruple  of  doubt;  several  authorities,  which  are  cited  on 
this  occasion,  amount  only  to  the  single  one  of  Matthew 
Paris,  who  gives  it  as  a  popular  rumour.  Such  accusations 
usually  happened  when  the  Jews  were  too  rich  and  the  king 
was  too  poor ! 

The  falsehoods  and  forgeries  raised  by  parties  are  over- 
whelming! It  startles  a  philosopher,  in  the  calm  of  his 
study,  when  he  discovers  how  writers,  who,  we  may  presume, 
are  searchers  after  truth,  should,  in  fact,  turn  out  to  be 
searchers  after  the  grossest  fictions.  This  alters  the  habits 
of  the  literary  man :  it  is  an  unnatural  depravity  of  his  pur- 
suits— and  it  proves  that  the  personal  is  too  apt  to  predom- 
inate over  the  literary  character. 

I  have  already  touched  on  the  main  point  of  the  present 
article  in  the  one  on  "  Political  Nick-names."  I  have  there 
shown  how  political  calumny  appears  to  have  been  reduced 
into  an  art ;  one  of  its  branches  would  be  that  of  converting 
forgeries  and  fictions  into  historical  authorities. 

When  one  nation  is  at  war  with  another,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  two  governments  connive  at,  and  often  encourage, 
the  most  atrocious  libels  on  each  other,  to  madden  the  people 
to  preserve  their  independence,  and  contribute  cheerfully  to 
the  expenses  of  the  war.  France  and  England  formerly 
complained  of  Holland — the  Athenians  employed  the  same 
policy  against  the  Macedonians  and  Persians.    Such  is  the 


POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 


25 


origin  of  a  vast  number  of  supposititious  papers  and  volumes, 
which  sometimes,  at  a  remote  date,  confound  the  labors  of 
the  honest  historian,  and  too  often  serve  the  purposes  of  the 
dishonest,  with  whom  they  become  authorities.  The  crude 
and  suspicious  libels  which  were  drawn  out  of  their  obscurity 
in  Cromwell's  time  against  James  the  First,  have  over-loaded 
the  character  of  that  monarch,  yet  are  now  eagerly  referred 
to  by  party  writers,  though  in  their  own  days  they  were 
obsolete  and  doubtful.  During  the  civil  wars  of  Charles  the 
First,  such  spurious  documents  exist  in  the  forms  of  speeches 
which  were  never  spoken ;  of  letters  never  written  by  the 
names  subscribed ;  printed  declarations  never  declared ; 
battles  never  fought,  and  victories  never  obtained  !  Such  is 
the  language  of  Rushworth,  who  complains  of  this  evil 
spirit  of  party  forgeries,  while  he  is  himself  suspected  of 
having  rescinded  or  suppressed  whatever  was  not  agreeable 
to  his  patron  Cromwell.  A  curious,  and,  perhaps,  a  neces- 
sary list  might  be  drawn  up  of  political  forgeries  of  our  own, 
which  have  been  sometimes  referred  to  as  genuine,  but  which 
are  the  inventions  of  wits  and  satirists !  Bayle  ingeniously 
observes,  that  at  the  close  of  every  century  such  productions 
should  be  branded  by  a  skilful  discriminator,  to  save  the 
future  inquirer  from  errors  he  can  hardly  avoid.  "  How 
many  are  still  kept  in  error  by  the  satires  of  the  sixteenth 
century !  Those  of  the  present  age  will  be  no  less  active 
in  future  ages,  for  they  will  still  be  preserved  in  public 
libraries." 

The  art  and  skill  with  which  some  have  fabricated  a  forged 
narrative,  render  its  detection  almost  hopeless.  When  young 
Maitland,  the  brother  to  the  secretary,  in  order  to  palliate 
the  crime  of  the  assassination  of  the  Regent  Murray,  wras 
employed  to  draw  up  a  pretended  conference  between  him, 
Knox,  and  others,  to  stigmatize  them  by  the  odium  of  advis- 
ing to  dethrone  the  young  monarch,  and  to  substitute  the 
regent  for  their  sovereign,  Maitland  produced  so  dramatic  a 
performance,  by  giving  to  each  person  his  peculiar  mode  of 


26 


POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 


expression,  that  this  circumstance  long  baffled  the  incre- 
dulity of  those  who  could  not  in  consequence  deny  the  truth 
of  a  narrative  apparently  so  correct  in  its  particulars  !  "  The 
fiction  of  the  warming-pan,  inclosing  the  young  Pretender, 
brought  more  adherents  to  the  cause  of  the  Whigs  than  the 
Bill  of  Rights,"  observes  Lord  John  Russell. 

Among  such  party  narratives,  the  horrid  tale  of  the  bloody 
Colonel  Kirk  has  been  worked  up  by  Hume  with  all  his 
eloquence  and  pathos  ;  and,  from  its  interest,  no  suspicion 
has  arisen  of  its  truth.  Yet,  so  far  as  it  concerns  Kirk,  or 
the  reign  of  James  the  Second,  or  even  English  history,  it  is, 
as  Ritson  too  honestly  expresses  it,  "an  impudent  and  a 
barefaced  lie  !  "  The  simple  fact  is  told  by  Kennet  in  a  few 
words :  he  probably  was  aware  of  the  nature  of  this  political 
fiction.  Hume  was  not,  indeed,  himself  the  fabricator  of  the 
tale ;  but  he  had  not  any  historical  authority.  The  origin 
of  this  fable  was  probably  a  pious  fraud  of  the  Whig  party, 
to  whom  Kirk  had  rendered  himself  odious  ;  at  that  moment, 
stories  still  more  terrifying  were  greedily  swallowed,  and 
which,  Ritson  insinuates,  have  become  a  part  of  the  history 
of  England.  The  original  story,  related  more  circumstan- 
tially, though  not  more  affectingly,  nor  perhaps  more  truly, 
may  be  found  in  Wanley's  "  Wonders  of  the  Little  World,"  * 
which  I  give,  relieving  it  from  the  tediousness  of  old  Wanley. 

A  governor  of  Zealand,  under  the  bold  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
had  in  vain  sought  to  seduce  the  affections  of  the  beautiful 
wife  of  a  citizen.  The  governor  imprisons  the  husband  on 
an  accusation  of  treason  ;  and  when  the  wife  appeared  as  the 
suppliant,  the  governor,  after  no  brief  eloquence,  succeeded  as 
a  lover,  on  the  plea  that  her  husband's  life  could  only  be 
spared  by  her  compliance.  The  woman,  in  tears  and  in 
aversion,  and  not  without  a  hope  of  vengeance  only  delayed, 
lost  her  honour !  Pointing  to  the  prison,  the  governor  told 
her,  "  If  you  seek  your  husband,  enter  there,  and  take  him 
along  with  you  ! "  The  wife,  in  the  bitterness  of  her  thoughts, 
*  Book  iii.  ch.  29,  sec.  18. 


POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 


27 


yec  not  without  the  consolation  that  she  had  snatched  her 
husband  from  the  grave,  passed  into  the  prison  ;  there  in  a 
cell,  to  her  astonishment  and  horror,  she  beheld  the  corpse 
of  her  husband  laid  out  in  a  coffin,  ready  for  burial !  Mourn- 
ing over  it,  she  at  length  returned  to  the  governor,  fiercely 
exclaiming,  "  You  have  kept  your  word  !  you  have  restored 
to  me  my  husband !  and  be  assured  the  favour  shall  be  re- 
paid !  "  The  inhuman  villain,  terrified  in  the  presence  of  his 
intrepid  victim,  attempted  to  appease  her  vengeance,  and 
more,  to  win  her  to  his  wishes.  Returning  home,  she  assem- 
bled her  friends,  revealed  her  whole  story,  and  under  their 
protection  she  appealed  to  Charles  the  Bold,  a  strict  lover 
of  justice,  and  who  now  awarded  a  singular  but  an  exem- 
plary catastrophe.  The  duke  first  commanded  that  the  crim- 
inal governor  should  instantly  marry  the  woman  whom  he 
had  made  a  widow,  and  at  the  same  time  sign  his  will,  with 
a  clause  importing  that  should  he  die  before  his  lady  he  con- 
stituted her  his  heiress.  All  this  was  concealed  from  both 
sides,  rather  to  satisfy  the  duke  than  the  parties  themselves. 
This  done,  the  unhappy  woman  was  dismissed  alone  !  The 
governor  was  conducted  to  the  prison  to  suffer  the  same  death 
he  had  inflicted  on  the  husband  of  his  wife ;  and  when  this 
lady  was  desired  once  more  to  enter  the  prison,  she  beheld 
her  second  husband  headless  in  his  coffin  as  she  had  her  first ! 
Such  extraordinary  incidents  in  so  short  a  period  overpow- 
ered the  feeble  frame  of  the  sufferer ;  she  died — leaving  a 
son,  who  inherited  the  rich  accession  of  fortune  so  fatally 
obtained  by  his  injured  and  suffering  mother. 

Such  is  the  tale  of  which  the  party  story  of  Kirk  appeared 
to  Ritson  to  have  been  a  rifacimento  ;  but  it  is  rather  the 
foundation  than  the  superstructure.  This  critic  was  right  in 
the  general,  but  not  in  the  particular.  It  was  not  necessary 
to  point  out  the  present  source,  when  so  many  others  of  a 
parallel  nature  exist.  This  tale,  universally  told,  Mr.  Douce 
considers  as  the  origin  of  "  Measure  for  Measure,"  and  was 
probably  some  traditional  event ;  for  it  appears  sometimes 


28  POLITICAL  FORGERIES  AND  FICTIONS. 

with  a  change  of  names  and  places,  without  any  of  incident. 
It  always  turns  on  a  soldier,  a  brother,  or  a  husband  exe- 
cuted ;  and  a  wife,  or  sister,  a  deceived  victim,  to  save  them 
from  death.  It  was  therefore  easily  transferred  to  Kirk,  and 
Pomfret's  poem  of  "  Cruelty  and  Lust "  long  made  the  story 
popular.  It  could  only  have  been  in  this  form  that  it  reached 
the  historian,  who,  it  must  be  observed,  introduces  it  as  a 
"  story  commonly  told  of  him  ; "  but  popular  tragic  romances 
should  not  enter  into  the  dusty  documents  of  a  history  of 
England,  and  much  less  be  particularly  specified  in  the 
index  !  Belleforest,  in  his  old  version  of  the  tale,  has  even 
the  circumstance  of  the  "  captain,  who  having  seduced  the 
wife  under  the  promise  to  save  her  husband's  life,  exhibited 
him  soon  afterwards  through  the  window  of  her  apartment 
suspended  on  a  gibbet."  This  forms  the  horrid  incident  in 
the  history  of  "  the  bloody  Colonel,"  and  served  the  purpose 
of  a  party,  who  wished  to  bury  him  in  odium.  Kirk  was  a 
soldier  of  fortune,  and  a  loose  liver,  and  a  great  blusterer, 
who  would  sometimes  threaten  to  decimate  his  own  regi- 
ment ;  but  is  said  to  have  forgotten  the  menace  the  next  day. 
Hateful  as  such  military  men  will  always  be,  in  the  present 
instance  Colonel  Kirk  has  been  shamefully  calumniated  by 
poets  and  historians,  who  suffer  themselves  to  be  duped  by 
the  forgeries  of  political  parties  ! 

While  we  are  detecting  a  source  of  error,  into  which  the 
party  feelings  of  modern  historians  may  lead  them,  let  us 
confess  that  they  are  far  more  valuable  than  the  ancient ;  for 
to  us,  at  least,  the  ancients  have  written  history  without  pro- 
ducing authorities  !  Modern  historians  must  furnish  their 
readers  with  the  truest  means  to  become  their  critics,  by  pro- 
viding them  with  their  authorities  ;  and  it  is  only  by  judi- 
ciously appreciating  these  that  we  may  confidently  accept 
their  discoveries.  Unquestionably  the  ancients  have  often 
introduced  into  their  histories  many  tales  similar  to  the  story 
of  Kirk — popular  or  party  forgeries  !  The  mellifluous  copi- 
ousness of  Livy  conceals  many  a  tale  of  wonder;  the  graver 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION.  29 


of  Tacitus  etches  many  a  fatal  stroke  ;  and  the  secret  history 
of  Suetonius  too  often  raises  a  suspicion  of  those  whispers, 
Quid  rex  in  aurem  regince  dixerit,  quid  Juno  fabulata  sit  cum 
Jove.  It  is  certain  that  Plutarch  has  often  told,  and  varied 
too  in  the  telling,  the  same  story,  which  he  has  applied  to  dif- 
ferent persons.  A  critic  in  the  Ritsonian  style  has  said 
of  the  grave  Plutarch,  Mendax  ille  Plutarchus  qui  vitas 
oratorum,  dolis  et  erroribus,  co?isutas,  olim  conscribillavit* 
"  That  lying  Plutarch,  who  formerly  scribbled  the  lives  of  the 
orators,  made  up  of  falsities  and  blunders  ! "  There  is  in 
Italian  a  scarce  book,  of  a  better  design  than  execution,  of 
the  Abbate  Lancellotti,  Farfalloni  degli  Antichi  Historici. 
— "  Flim-flams  of  the  ancients."  Modern  historians  have  to 
dispute  their  passage  to  immortality  step  by  step ;  and  how- 
ever fervid  be  their  eloquence,  their  real  test  as  to  value  must 
be  brought  to  the  humble  references  in  their  margin.  Yet 
these  must  not  terminate  our  inquiries ;  for  in  tracing  a  story 
to  its  original  source,  we  shall  find  that  fictions  have  been 
sometimes  grafted  on  truths  or  hearsays,  and  to  separate 
them  as  they  appeared  in  their  first  stage,  is  the  pride  and 
glory  of  learned  criticism. 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 

A  people  denied  the  freedom  of  speech  or  of  writing, 
have  usually  left  some  memorials  of  their  feelings  in  that 
silent  language  which  addresses  itself  to  the  eye.  Many 
ingenious  inventions  have  been  contrived,  to  give  vent  to 
their  suppressed  indignation.  The  voluminous  grievance 
which  they  could  not  trust  to  the  voice  or  the  pen,  they  have 
carved  in  wood,  or  sculptured  on  stone  ;  and  have  sometimes 
even  facetiously  concealed  their  satire  among  the  playful 


*  Taylor,  Armot.  ad  Lysiam. 


30 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


ornaments  designed  to  amuse  those  of  whom  they  so  fruit- 
lessly complained  !  Such  monuments  of  the  suppressed  feel- 
ings of  the  multitude  are  not  often  inspected  by  the  historian 
— their  minuteness  escapes  all  eyes  but  those  of  the  phi- 
losophical antiquary  :  nor  are  these  satirical  appearances 
always  considered  as  grave  authorities,  which  unquestionably 
they  will  be  found  to  be  by  a  close  observer  of  human  nature. 
An  entertaining  history  of  the  modes  of  thinking,  or  the  dis- 
contents, of  a  people,  drawn  from  such  dispersed  efforts,  in 
every  sera,  would  cast  a  new  light  of  secret  history  over  many 
dark  intervals. 

Did  we  possess  a  secret  history  of  the  Saturnalia,  it  would 
doubtless  have  afforded  some  materials  for  the  present  article. 
In  those  revels  of  venerable  radicalism,  when  the  senate  was 
closed,  and  the  Pileus,  or  cap  of  liberty,  was  triumphantly 
worn,  all  things  assumed  an  appearance  contrary  to  what 
they  were ;  and  human  nature,  as  well  as  human  laws,  might 
be  said  to  have  been  parodied.  Among  so  many  whimsical 
regulations  in  favour  of  the  licentious  rabble,  there  was  one 
which  forbad  the  circulation  of  money  ;  if  any  one  offered 
the  coin  of  the  state,  it  was  to  be  condemned  as  an  act  of 
madness,  and  the  man  was  brought  to  his  senses  by  a  peni- 
tential fast  for  that  day.  An  ingenious  French  antiquary 
seems  to  have  discovered  a  class  of  wretched  medals,  cast  in 
lead  or  copper,  which  formed  the  circulating  medium  of  these 
mob  lords,  who,  to  ridicule  the  idea  of  money,  used  the  basest 
metals,  stamping  them  with  grotesque  figures,  or  odd  devices 
— such  as  a  sow  ;  a  chimerical  bird ;  an  imperator  in  his  car, 
with  a  monkey  behind  him  ;  or  an  old  woman's  head,  Acca 
Laurentia,  either  the  traditional  old  nurse  of  Romulus,  or  an 
old  courtesan  of  the  same  name,  who  bequeathed  the  fruits 
of  her  labours  to  the  Roman  people  !  As  all  things  were 
done  in  mockery,  this  base  metal  is  stamped  with  s.  c,  to 
ridicule  the  Senatus  consulto,  which  our  antiquary  happily 
explains,*  in  the  true  spirit  of  this  government  of  mockery, 
*  Baudelot  de  Dairval,  de  F  UUUte  des  Voyages,  ii.  645.    There  is  a  work, 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


31 


Satumalium  consulto,  agreeing  with  the  legend  of  the  re- 
verse, inscribed  in  the  midst  of  four  tali,  or  bones,  which  they 
used  as  dice,  Qui  ludit  arram  det,  quod  satis  sit — "  Let  them 
who  play  give  a  pledge,  which  will  be  sufficient."  This  mock- 
money  served  not  only  as  an  expression  of  the  native  irony 
of  the  radical  gentry  of  Rome  during  their  festival,  but  had 
they  spoken  their  mind  out,  meant  a  ridicule  of  money  itself ; 
for  these  citizens  of  equality  have  always  imagined  that 
society  might  proceed  without  this  contrivance  of  a  medium 
which  served  to  represent  property,  in  which  they  themselves 
must  so  little  participate. 

A  period  so  glorious  for  exhibiting  the  suppressed  senti- 
ments of  the  populace,  as  were  these  Saturnalia,  had  been 
nearly  lost  for  us,  had  not  some  notions  been  preserved  by 
Lucian ;  for  we  glean  but  sparingly  from  the  solemn  pages 
of  the  historian,  except  in  the  remarkable  instance  which 
Suetonius  has  preserved  of  the  arch-mime  who  followed  the 
body  of  the  Emperor  Vespasian  at  his  funeral.  This  officer, 
as  well  as  a  similar  one  who  accompanied  the  general  to 
whom  they  granted  a  triumph,  and  who  was  allowed  the  un- 
restrained licentiousness  of  his  tongue,  were  both  the  organs 
of  popular  feeling,  and  studied  to  gratify  the  rabble,  who 
were  their  real  masters.  On  this  occasion  the  arch-mime, 
representing  both  the  exterior  personage  and  the  character 
of  Vespasian,  according  to  custom,  inquired  the  expense  of 
the  funeral  ?  He  was  answered,  "  ten  millions  of  sesterces ! " 
In  allusion  to  the  love  of  money  which  characterized  the 
emperor,  his  mock  representative  exclaimed,  "  Give  me  the 
money,  and,  if  you  will,  throw  my  body  into  the  Tiber  !  " 

by  Ficoroni,  on  these  lead  coins  or  tickets.  They  are  found  in  the  cabinets 
of  the  curious  medallist.  Pinkerton,  in  referring  to  this  entertaining  work, 
regrets  that  "  Such  curious  remains  have  almost  escaped  the  notice  of 
medallists,  and  have  not  yet  been  arranged  in  one  class,  or  named.  A 
special  work  on  them  would  be  highly  acceptable."  The  time  has  perhaps 
arrived  when  antiquaries  may  begin  to  be  philosophers,  and  philosophers 
antiquaries !  The  unhappy  separation  of  erudition  from  philosophy,  and 
of  philosophy  from  erudition,  has  hitherto  thrown  impediments  in  the 
progress  of  the  human  mind,  and  the  history  of  man. 


32 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


All  these  mock  offices  and  festivals  among  the  ancients,  I 
consider  as  organs  of  the  suppressed  opinions  and  feelings  of 
the  populace,  who  were  allowed  no  other,  and  had  not  the 
means  of  the  printing  ages  to  leave  any  permanent  records. 
At  a  later  period,  before  the  discovery  of  the  art,  which 
multiplies,  with  such  facility,  libels  or  panegyrics  ;  when  the 
people  could  not  speak  freely  against  those  rapacious  clergy, 
who  sheared  the  fleece  and  cared  not  for  the  sheep,  many  a 
secret  of  popular  indignation  was  confided  not  to  books  (for 
they  could  not  read),  but  to  pictures  and  sculptures,  which 
are  books  which  the  people  can  always  read.  The  sculptors 
and  illuminators  of  those  times,  no  doubt  shared  in  common 
the  popular  feelings,  and  boldly  trusted  to  the  paintings  or 
the  carvings  which  met  the  eyes  of  their  luxurious  and  in- 
dolent masters,  their  satirical  inventions.  As  far  back  as  in 
1300,  we  find  in  Wolfius,*  the  description  of  a  picture  of 
this  kind,  in  a  MS.  of  iEsop's  Fables,  found  in  the  Abbey 
of  Fulda,  among  other  emblems  of  the  corrupt  lives  of  the 
churchmen.  The  present  was  a  wolf,  large  as  life,  wearing 
a  monkish  cowl,  with  a  shaven  crown,  preaching  to  a  flock 
of  sheep,  with  these  words  of  the  apostle  in  a  label  from  his 
mouth, — "  God  is  my  witness  how  I  long  for  you  all  in  my 
bowels !  "  And  underneath  was  inscribed — "  This  hooded 
wolf  is  the  hypocrite  of  whom  is  said  in  the  Gospel,  1  Beware 
of  false  prophets  ! '  "  Such  exhibitions  were  often  introduced 
into  articles  of  furniture.  A  cushion  was  found  in  an  old 
abbey,  in  which  was  worked  a  fox  preaching  to  geese,  each 
goose  holding  in  his  bill  his  praying  beads !  In  the  stone 
wall,  and  on  the  columns  of  the  great  church  at  Strasburg 
was  once  viewed  a  number  of  wolves,  bears,  foxes,  and  other 
mischievous  animals,  carrying  holy  water,  crucifixes,  and 
tapers  ;  and  others  more  indelicate.  These,  probably  as  old 
as  the  year  1300,  were  engraven  in  1617,  by  a  protestant; 
and  were  not  destroyed  till  1685,  by  the  pious  rage  of  the 
catholics,  who  seemed  at  length  to  have  rightly  construed 
*  Lect.  Mem.  I.  ad  an.  1300. 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION.  33 


these  silent  lampoons ;  and  in  their  turn  broke  to  pieces  the 
protestant  images,  as  the  others  had  done  the  papistical  dolls. 
The  carved  seats  and  stalls  in  our  own  cathedrals  exhibit 
subjects,  not  only  strange  and  satirical,  but  even  indecent. 
At  the  time  they  built  churches  they  satirized  the  ministers ; 
a  curious  instance  how  the  feelings  of  the  people  struggle  to 
find  a  vent.  It  is  conjectured  that  rival  orders  satirized  each 
other,  and  that  some  of  the  carvings  are  caricatures  of  cer- 
tain monks.  The  margins  of  illuminated  manuscripts  fre- 
quently contain  ingenious  caricatures,  or  satirical  allegories. 
In  a  magnificent  chronicle  of  Froissart,  I  observed  several. 
A  wolf,  as  usual,  in  a  monk's  frock  and  cowl,  stretching  his 
paw  to  bless  a  cock,  bending  its  head  submissively  to  the 
wolf :  or  a  fox  with  a  crosier,  dropping  beads,  which  a  cock 
is  picking  up ;  to  satirize  the  blind  devotion  of  the  bigots ; 
perhaps  the  figure  of  the  cock  alluded  to  our  Gallic  neigh- 
bours. A  cat  in  the  habit  of  a  nun,  holding  a  platter  in  its 
paws  to  a  mouse  approaching  to  lick  it ;  alluding  to  the 
allurements  of  the  abbesses  to  draw  young  women  into  their 
convents ;  while  sometimes  I  have  seen  a  sow  in  an  abbess's 
veil,  mounted  on  stilts :  the  sex  marked  by  the  sow's  dugs. 
A  pope  sometimes  appears  to  be  thrust  by  devils  into  a 
caldron  ;  and  cardinals  are  seen  roasting  on  spits  !  These 
ornaments  must  have  been  generally  executed  by  the  monks 
themselves  ;  but  these  more  ingenious  members  of  the  eccle- 
siastical order  appear  to  have  sympathized  with  the  people, 
like  the  curates  in  our  church,  and  envied  the  pampered 
abbot  and  the  purple  bishop.  Churchmen  were  the  usual 
objects  of  the  suppressed  indignation  of  the  people  in  those 
days ;  but  the  knights  and  feudal  lords  have  not  always 
escaped  from  the  "  curses  not  loud,  but  deep,"  of  their  satir- 
ical pencils. 

As  the  Reformation,  or  rather  the  Revolution,  was  hasten- 
ing, this  custom  became  so  general,  that  in  one  of  the  dia- 
logues of  Erasmus,  where  two  Franciscans  are  entertained 
by  their  host,  it  appears  that  such  satirical  exhibitions  were 

VOL.  iv.  3 


34  EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


hung  up  as  common  furniture  in  the  apartments  of  inns. 
The  facetious  genius  of  Erasmus  either  invents  or  describes 
one  which  he  had  seen  of  an  ape  in  the  habit  of  a  Francis- 
can sitting  by  a  sick  man's  bed,  dispensing  ghostly  counsel, 
holding  up  a  crucifix  in  one  hand,  while  with  the  other  he  is 
filching  a  purse  out  of  the  sick  man's  pocket.  Such  are 
"  the  straws  "  by  which  we  may  always  observe  from  what 
corner  the  wind  rises  !  Mr.  Dibdin  has  recently  informed 
us,  that  Geyler,  whom  he  calls  "  the  herald  of  the  Reforma- 
tion," preceding  Luther  by  twelve  years,  had  a  stone  chair 
or  pulpit  in  the  cathedral  at  Strasburg,  from  which  he  de- 
livered his  lectures,  or  rather  rolled  the  thunders  of  his 
anathemas  against  the  monks.  This  stone  pulpit  was  con- 
structed under  his  own  superintendence,  and  is  covered  with 
very  indecent  figures  of  monks  and  nuns,  expressly  designed 
by  him  to  expose  their  profligate  manners.  We  see  Geyler 
doing  what  for  centuries  had  been  done  ! " 

In  the  curious  folios  of  Sauval,  the  Stowe  of  France,  there 
is  a  copious  chapter  entitled  "  Heretiques,  leurs  attentats" 
In  this  enumeration  of  their  attempts  to  give  vent  to  their 
suppressed  indignation,  it  is  very  remarkable,  that  'preceding 
the  time  of  Luther,  the  minds  of  many  were  perfectly  Lu- 
theran respecting  the  idolatrous  worship  of  the  Roman 
church ;  and  what  I  now  notice  would  have  rightly  entered 
into  that  significant  Historia  Reformationis  ante  Reforma- 
tionem,  which  was  formerly  projected  by  continental  writers. 

Luther  did  not  consign  the  pope's  decretals  to  the  flames 
till  1520 — this  was  the  first  open  act  of  reformation  and  in- 
surrection, for  hitherto  he  had  submitted  to  the  court  of 
Rome.  Yet  in  1490,  thirty  years  preceding  this  great  event, 
I  find  a  priest  burnt  for  having  snatched  the  host  in  derision 
from  the  hands  of  another  celebrating  mass.  Twelve  years 
afterwards,  1502,  a  student  repeated  the  same  deed,  tramp- 
ling on  it ;  and  in  1523,  the  resolute  death  of  Anne  de  Bourg, 
a  counsellor  in  the  parliament  of  Paris,  to  use  the  expression 
of  Sauval,  "corrupted  the  world."    It  is  evident  that  the 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION.  35 


Huguenots  were  fast  on  the  increase.  From  that  period  I 
find  continued  accounts  which  prove  that  the  Huguenots  of 
France,  like  the  Puritans  of  England,  were  most  resolute 
iconoclasts.  They  struck  off  the  heads  of  Virgins  and  little 
Jesuses,  or  blunted  their  daggers  by  chipping  the  wooden 
saints,  which  were  then  fixed  at  the  corners  of  streets. 
Every  morning  discovered  the  scandalous  treatment  they  had 
undergone  in  the  night.  Then  their  images  were  painted  on 
the  walls,  but  these  were  heretically  scratched  and  disfigured : 
and,  since  the  saints  could  not  defend  themselves,  a  royal 
edict  was  published  in  their  favour,  commanding  that  all 
holy  paintings  in  the  streets  should  not  be  allowed  short  of 
ten  feet  from  the  ground  !  They  entered  churches  at  night, 
tearing  up  or  breaking  down  the  prians,  the  benitoires,  the 
crucifixes,  the  colossal  ecce-homos,  which  they  did  not  always 
succeed  in  dislodging  for  want  of  time  or  tools.  Amidst 
these  battles  with  wooden  adversaries,  we  may  smile  at  the 
frequent  solemn  processions  instituted  to  ward  off  the  ven- 
geance of  the  parish  saint ;  the  wooden  was  expiated  by  a 
silver  image,  secured  by  iron  bars  and  attended  by  the  king 
and  the  nobility,  carrying  the  new  saint,  with  prayers  that  he 
would  protect  himself  from  the  heretics ! 

In  an  early  period  of  the  Reformation,  an  instance  occurs 
of  the  art  of  concealing  what  we  wish  only  the  few  should 
comprehend,  at  the  same  time  that  we  are  addressing  the 
public.  Curious  collectors  are  acquainted  with  "  The  Olive- 
tan  Bible ; "  this  was  the  first  translation  published  by  the 
protestants,  and  there  seems  no  doubt  that  Calvin  was  the 
chief,  if  not  the  only  translator;  but  at  that  moment  not 
choosing  to  become  responsible  for  this  new  version,  he  made 
use  of  the  name  of  an  obscure  relative,  Robert  Pierre 
Olivetan.  Calvin,  however,  prefixed  a  Latin  preface,  re- 
markable for  delivering  positions  very  opposite  to  those 
tremendous  doctrines  of  absolute  predestination,  which  in  his 
theological  despotism  he  afterwards  assumed.  De  Bure 
describes  this  first  protestant  Bible  not  only  as  rare,  but 


3G 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


when  found,  as  usually  imperfect,  much  soiled  and  dog-eared, 
as  the  well-read  first  edition  of  Shakspeare,  by  the  perpetual 
use  of  the  multitude.  But  a  curious  fact  has  escaped  the 
detection  both  of  De  Bure  and  Beloe ;  at  the  end  of  the 
volume  are  found  ten  verses,  which,  in  a  concealed  manner, 
authenticate  the  translation  ;  and  which  no  one,  unless  initi- 
ated into  the  secret,  could  possibly  suspect.  The  verses  are 
not  poetical,  but  I  give  the  first  sentence : — 

"  Lecteur  entends,  si  v^rite*  adresse 
Viens  done  ouyr  instament  sa  promesse 
Et  vif  parler  "  &c. 

The  first  letters  of  every  word  of  these  ten  verses  form  a  per- 
fect distich,  containing  information  important  to  those  to 
whom  the  Olivetan  Bible  was  addressed. 

"  Les  Vaudois,  peuple  eVangelique, 
Ont  mis  ce  thr^sor  en  publique." 

An  anagram  would  have  been  too  inartificial  a  contrivance 
to  have  answered  the  purpose  of  concealing  from  the  world 
at  large  this  secret.  There  is  an  adroitness  in  the  invention 
of  the  initial  letters  of  all  the  words  through  these  ten  verses. 
They  contained  a  communication  necessary  to  authenticate 
the  version,  but  which,  at  the  same  time,  could  not  be  sus- 
pected by  any  person  not  intrusted  with  the  secret. 

When  the  art  of  medal  -engraving  was  revived  in  Europe, 
the  spirit  we  are  now  noticing  took  possession  of  those  less 
perishable  and  more  circulating  vehicles.  Satiric  medals 
were  almost  unknown  to  the  ancient  mint,  notwithstanding 
those  of  the  Saturnalia,  and  a  few  which  bear  miserable 
puns  on  the  unlucky  names  of  some  consuls.  Medals  illus- 
trate history,  and  history  reflects  light  on  medals  ;  but  we 
should  not  place  such  unreserved  confidence  on  medals,  as 
their  advocates,  who  are  warm  in  their  favourite  study.  It 
has  been  asserted,  that  medals  are  more  authentic  memorials 
than  history  itself ;  but  a  medal  is  not  less  susceptible  of  the 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


37 


bad  passions  than  a  pamphlet  or  an  epigram.  Ambition  has 
its  vanity,  and  engraves  a  dubious  victory ;  and  Flattery 
will  practise  its  art,  and  deceive  us  in  gold  !  A  calumny  or 
a  fiction  on  metal  may  be  more  durable  than  on  a  fugitive 
page ;  and  a  libel  has  a  better  chance  of  being  preserved, 
when  the  artist  is  skilful,  than  simple  truths  when  miserably 
executed.  Medals  of  this  class  are  numerous,  and  were  the 
precursors  of  those  political  satires  exhibited  in  caricature 
prints.  There  is  a  large  collection  of  wooden  cuts  about  the 
time  of  Calvin,  where  the  Romish  religion  is  represented  by 
the  most  grotesque  forms  which  the  ridicule  of  the  early 
Reformers  could  invent.  More  than  a  thousand  figures 
attest  the  exuberant  satire  of  the  designers.  This  work  is 
equally  rare  and  costly."  * 

Satires  of  this  species  commenced  in  the  freedom  of  the 
Reformation ;  for  we  find  a  medal  of  Luther  in  a  monk's 
habit,  satirically  bearing  for  its  reverse  Catherine  de  Bora, 
the  nun  whom  this  monk  married ;  the  first  step  of  his  per- 
sonal reformation  !  Nor  can  we  be  certain  that  Catherine 
was  not  more  concerned  in  that  great  revolution  than  appears 
in  the  voluminous  lives  we  have  of  the  great  reformer. 
However,  the  reformers  were  as  great  sticklers  for  medals  as 
the  "  papelins."  Of  Pope  John  VIII.,  an  effeminate  volup- 
tuary, we  have  a  medal  with  his  portrait,  inscribed  Pope 
Joan!  and  another  of  Innocent  X.,  dressed  as  a  woman 
holding  a  spindle ;  the  reverse,  his  famous  mistress,  Donna 
Olympia,  dressed  as  a  Pope,  with  the  tiara  on  her  head,  and 
the  keys  of  St.  Peter  in  her  hands ! 

When,  in  the  reign  of  Mary,  England  was  groaning  under 
Spanish  influence,  and  no  remonstrance  could  reach  the 
throne,  the  queen's  person  and  government  were  made  ridic- 
ulous to  the  people's  eyes,  by  prints  or  pictures,  "  represent- 
ing her  majesty  naked,  meagre,  withered,  and -wrinkled,  with 
every  aggravated  circumstance  of  deformity  that  could  dis- 

*  Mr.  Douce  possessed  a  portion  of  this  very  curious  collection :  for  a 
complete  one  De  Bure  asked  about  twenty  pounds. 


38  EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


grace  a  female  figure,  seated  in  a  regal  chair ;  a  crown  on 
her  head,  surrounded  with  M.  R.  and  A.  in  capitals,  accom- 
panied by  small  letters  ;  Maria  Regina  Anglice  !  a  number 
of  Spaniards  were  sucking  her  to  skin  and  bone,  and  a  speci- 
fication was  added  of  the  money,  rings,  jewels,  and  other 
presents  with  which  she  had  secretly  gratified  her  husband 
Philip."  *  It  is  said  that  the  queen  suspected  some  of  her 
own  council  of  this  invention,  who  alone  were  privy  to  these 
transactions.  It  is,  however,  in  this  manner  that  the  voice, 
which  is  suppressed  by  authority,  comes  at  length  in  another 
shape  to  the  eye. 

The  age  of  Elizabeth,  when  the  Roman  pontiff*  and  all  his 
adherents  were  odious  to  the  people,  produced  a  remarkable 
caricature,  and  ingenious  invention — a  gorgon's  head!  A 
church  bell  forms  the  helmet ;  the  ornaments,  instead  of  the 
feathers,  are  a  wolfs  head  in  a  mitre  devouring  a  lamb,  an 
ass's  head  with  spectacles  reading,  a  goose  holding  a  rosary : 
the  face  is  made  out  with  a  fish  for  the  nose,  a  chalice  and 
water  for  the  eye,  and  other  priestly  ornaments  for  the  shoulder 
and  breast,  on  which  rolls  of  parchment  pardons  hang,  f 

A  famous  bishop  of  Munster,  Bernard  de  Galen,  who,  in 
his  charitable  violence  for  converting  protestants,  got  him- 
self into  such  celebrity  that  he  appears  to  have  served  as  an 
excellent  sign-post  to  the  inns  in  Germany,  was  the  true 
church  militant :  and  his  figure  was  exhibited  according  to 
the  popular  fancy.  His  head  was  half  mitre  and  half 
helmet ;  a  crosier  in  one  hand  and  a  sabre  in  the  other ; 
half  a  rochet  and  half  a  cuirass :  he  was  made  performing 
mass  as  a  dragoon  on  horseback,  and  giving  out  the  charge 
when  he  ought  the  Ite,  missa  est !  He  was  called  the  con- 
verter !  and  the  "  Bishop  of  Munster  "  became  popular  as  a 
sign-post  in  German  towns  ;  for  the  people  like  fighting  men, 
though  they  should  even  fight  against  themselves. 

*  Warton's  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  p.  58. 

f  This  ancient  caricature,  so  descriptive  of  the  popular  feelings,  is 
tolerably  given  in  Malcolm's  history  of  "  Caricaturing,"  plate  ii.  fig.  I. 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION.  39 


It  is  rather  curious  to  observe  of  this  new  species  of  satire, 
so  easily  distributed  among  the  people,  and  so  directly  ad- 
dressed to  their  understandings,  that  it  was  made  the  vehicle 
of  national  feeling.  Ministers  of  state  condescended  to  in- 
vent the  devices.  Lord  Orford  says,  that  caricatures  on 
cards  were  the  invention  of  George  Townshend  in  the  affair 
of  Byng,  which  was  soon  followed  by  a  pack.  I  am  in- 
formed of  an  ancient  pack  of  cards  which  has  caricatures  of 
all  the  Parliamentarian  Generals,  which  might  be  not  unuse- 
fully  shuffled  by  a  writer  of  secret  history.  We  may  be 
surprised  to  find  the  grave  Sully  practising  this  artifice  on 
several  occasions.  In  the  civil  wars  of  France  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  had  taken  by  surprise  Saluces,  and  struck  a  medal ; 
on  the  reverse  a  centaur  appears  shooting  with  a  bow  and 
arrow,  with  the  legend  Opportune!  But  when  Henry  the 
Fourth  had  reconquered  the  town,  he  published  another,  on 
which  Hercules  appears  killing  the  centaur,  with  the  word 
Opportunius.  The  great  minister  was  the  author  of  this 
retort !  A  medal  of  the  Dutch  ambassador  at  the  court  of 
France,  Van  Beuninghen,  whom  the  French  represent  as  a 
haughty  burgomaster,  but  who  had  the  vivacity  of  a  French- 
man and  the  haughtiness  of  a  Spaniard,  as  Voltaire  charac- 
terizes him,  is  said  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  the  Dutch 
war  in  1672  ;  but  wars  will  be  hardly  made  for  an  idle 
medal.  Medals  may,  however,  indicate  a  preparatory  war. 
Louis  the  Fourteenth  was  so  often  compared  to  the  sun  at  its 
meridian,  that  some  of  his  creatures  may  have  imagined 
that,  like  the  sun,  he  could  dart  into  any  part  of  Europe  as 
he  willed,  and  be  as  cheerfully  received.  The  Dutch  min- 
ister, whose  christian  name  was  Joshua,  however,  had  a 
medal  struck  of  Joshua  stopping  the  sun  in  his  course,  in- 
ferring that  this  miracle  was  operated  by  his  little  republic. 
The  medal  itself  is  engraven  in  Van  Loon's  voluminous 
Histoire  Medallique  du  Pays  Bas,  and  in  Marchand's  Die- 
tionnaire  Historique,  who  labours  to  prove  against  twenty 
authors  that  the  Dutch  ambassador  was  not  the  inventor ;  it 


40 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


was  not,  however,  unworthy  of  him,  and  it  conveyed  to  the 
world  the  high  feeling  of  her  power  which  Holland  had  then 
assumed.  Two  years  after  the  noise  about  this  medal,  the 
republic  paid  dear  for  the  device;  but  thirty  years  after- 
wards this  very  burgomaster  concluded  a  glorious  peace,  and 
France  and  Spain  were  compelled  to  receive  the  mediation 
of  the  Dutch  Joshua  with  the  French  Sun.*  In  these 
Vehicles  of  national  satire,  it  is  odd  that  the  phlegmatic 
Dutch,  more  than  any  other  nation,  and  from  the  earliest 
period  of  their  republic,  should  have  indulged  freely,  if  not 
licentiously.  It  was  a  republican  humour.  Their  taste  was 
usually  gross.  We  owe  to  them,  even  in  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth, a  severe  medal  on  Leicester,  who,  having  retired  in 
disgust  from  the  government  of  their  provinces,  struck  a 
medal  with  his  bust,  reverse  a  dog  and  sheep, 

"  Non  gregem,  sed  ingratos  invitus  desero ;  " 

on  which  the  angry  juvenile  states  struck  another,  represent- 
ing an  ape  and  young  ones ;  reverse,  Leicester  near  a  fire, 

11  Fugiens  fumum,  incidit  in  ignzm.'1'' 

Another  medal,  with  an  excellent  portrait  of  Cromwell,  was 
struck  by  the  Dutch.  The  protector,  crowned  with  laurels, 
is  on  his  knees,  laying  his  head  in  the  lap  of  the  common- 
wealth, but  loosely  exhibiting  himself  to  the  French  and 
Spanish  ambassadors  with  gross  indecency  :  the  Frenchman, 
covered  with  Jleurs  de  lis,  is  pushing  aside  the  great  Don,  and 
disputes  with  him  the  precedence — Retire-toy  ;  Vhonneur  ap- 
parlient  au  roy  mon  maitre,  Louis  le  Grand.  Van  Loon  is 
very  right  in  denouncing  this  same  medal,  so  grossly  flatter- 
ing to  the  English,  as  most  detestable  and  indelicate  !  But 
why  does  Van  Loon  envy  us  this  lumpish  invention  ?  why 
does  the  Dutchman  quarrel  with  his  own  cheese  ?  The 
honour  of  the  medal  we  claim,  but  the  invention  belongs  to 
his  country.    The  Dutch  went  on,  commenting  in  this  man- 

*  The  history  of  this  medal  is  useful  in  more  than  one  respect;  and 
may  be  found  in  Prosper  Marchand. 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


41 


ner  on  English  affairs,  from  reign  to  reign.  Charles  the 
Second  declared  war  against  them  in  1672  for  a  malicious 
medal,  though  the  States- General  offered  to  break  the  die,  by 
purchasing  it  of  the  workman  for  one  thousand  ducats  ;  but  it 
served  for  a  pretext  for  a  Dutch  war,  which  Charles  cared 
more  about  than  the  mala  bestia  of  his  exergue.  Charles 
also  complained  of  a  scandalous  picture  which  the  brothers 
De  Witt  had  in  their  house,  representing  a  naval  battle  with 
the  English.  Charles  the  Second  seems  to  have  been  more 
sensible  to  this  sort  of  national  satire  than  we  might  have 
expected  in  a  professed  wit ;  a  race,  however,  who  are  not 
the  most  patient  in  having  their  own  sauce  returned  to  their 
lips.  The  king  employed  Evelyn  to  write  a  history  of  the 
Dutch  war,  and  "  enjoined  him  to  make  it  a  little  keen,  for  the 
Hollanders  had  very  unhandsomely  abused  him  in  their  pic- 
tures, books,  and  libels."  The  Dutch  continued  their  career 
of  conveying  their  national  feeling  on  English  affairs  more 
triumphantly  when  their  stadtholder  ascended  an  English 
throne.  The  birth  of  the  Pretender  is  represented  by  the 
chest  which  Minerva  gave  to  the  daughters  of  Cecrops  to 
keep,  and  which,  opened,  discovered  an  infant  with  a  ser- 
pent's tail :  Infantemque  violent  apporrectumque  draconem  ; 
the  chest  perhaps  alluding  to  the  removes  of  the  warming- 
pan  ;  and,  in  another,  James  and  a  Jesuit  flying  in  terror,  the 
king  throwing  away  a  crown  and  sceptre,  and  the  Jesuit 
carrying  a  child,  Ite  missa  est,  the  words  applied  from  the 
mass.  But  in  these  contests  of  national  feeling,  while  the 
grandeur  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth  did  not  allow  of  these  ludi- 
crous and  satirical  exhibitions ;  and  while  the  political  idolatry 
which  his  forty  academicians  paid  to  him,  exhausted  itself  in 
the  splendid  fictions  of  a  series  of  famous  medals,  amounting 
to  nearly  four  hundred  ;  it  appears  that  we  were  not  without 
our  reprisals  :  for  I  find  Prosper  Marchand,  who  writes  as  a 
Hollander,  censuring  his  own  country  for  having  at  length 
adulated  the  grand  monarque  by  a  complimentary  medal. 
He  says,  "  The  English  cannot  be  reproached  with  a  similar 


42 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION. 


debonairete."  After  the  famous  victories  of  Marlborough, 
they  indeed  inserted  in  a  medal  the  head  of  the  French  mon- 
arch and  the  English  queen,  with  this  inscription,  Ludovicus 
Magnus,  Anna  Major.  Long  ere  this  one  of  our  queens  had 
been  exhibited  by  ourselves  with  considerable  energy.  On 
the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  Elizabeth,  Pinkerton  tells  us, 
struck  a  medal  representing  the  English  and  Spanish  fleets, 
Hesperidum  regem  devicit  virgo.  Philip  had  medals  dis- 
persed in  England  of  the  same  impression,  with  this  addition, 
Negatur.  Est  meretrix  vulgi.  These  the  queen  suppressed, 
but  published  another  medal,  with  this  legend : 

"  Hesperidum  regem  devicit  virgo ;  negatur, 
Est  meretrix  vulgi;  res  eo  deterior." 

An  age  fertile  in  satirical  prints  was  the  eventful  agra  of 
Charles  the  First :  they  were  showered  from  all  parties,  and 
a  large  collection  of  them  would  admit  of  a  critical  historical 
commentary,  which  might  become  a  vehicle  of  the  most  curi- 
ous secret  history.  Most  of  them  are  in  a  bad  style,  for  they 
are  allegorical ;  yet  that  these  satirical  exhibitions  influenced 
the  eyes  and  minds  of  the  people  is  evident,  from  an  extra- 
ordinary circumstance.  Two  grave  collections  of  historical 
documents  adopted  them.  We  are  surprised  to  find  prefixed 
to  Rushworth's  and  Nalson's  historical  collections,  two  such 
political  prints  !  Nalson's  was  an  act  of  retributive  justice  ; 
but  he  seems  to  have  been  aware,  that  satire  in  the  shape  of 
pictures  is  a  language  very  attractive  to  the  multitude  ;  for 
he  has  introduced  a  caricature  print  in  the  solemn  folio  of  the 
trial  of  Charles  the  First.  Of  the  happiest  of  these  political 
prints  is  one  by  Taylor  the  water-poet,  not  included  in  his 
folio,  but  prefixed  to  his  "  Mad  fashions,  odd  fashions,  or  the 
emblems  of  these  distracted  times."  It  is  the  figure  of  a  man 
whose  eyes  have  left  their  sockets,  and  whose  legs  have 
usurped  the  place  of  his  arms  ;  a  horse  on  his  hind  legs  is 
drawing  a  cart ;  a  church  is  inverted  ;  fish  fly  in  the  air ;  a 
candle  burns  with  the  flame  downwards ;  and  the  mouse  and 
rabbit  are  pursuing  the  cat  and  the  fox ! 


EXPRESSION  OF  SUPPRESSED  OPINION.  43 


The  animosities  of  national  hatred  have  been  a  fertile 
source  of  these  vehicles  of  popular  feeling — which  discover 
themselves  in  severe  or  grotesque  caricatures.  The  French 
and  the  Spaniards  mutually  exhibited  one  another  under  the 
most  extravagant  figures.  The  political  caricatures  of  the 
French,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  are  numerous.  The 
badauds  of  Paris  amused  themselves  for  their  losses,  by 
giving  an  emetic  to  a  Spaniard,  to  make  him  render  up  all 
the  towns  his  victories  had  obtained :  seven  or  eight  Span- 
iards are  seen  seated  around  a  large  turnip,  with  their  frizzled 
mustachios,  their  hats  en  pot-a-beurre  ;  their  long  rapiers,  with 
their  pummels  down  to  their  feet,  and  their  points  up  to  their 
shoulders ;  their  ruffs  stiffened  by  many  rows,  and  pieces  of 
garlick  stuck  in  their  girdles.  The  Dutch  were  exhibited  in 
as  great  variety  as  the  uniformity  of  frogs  would  allow.  We 
have  largely  participated  in  the  vindictive  spirit,  which  these 
grotesque  emblems  keep  up  among  the  people ;  they  mark 
the  secret  feelings  of  national  pride.  The  Greeks  despised 
foreigners,  and  considered  them  only  as  fit  to  be  slaves ;  * 
the  ancient  Jews,  inflated  with  a  false  idea  of  their  small  ter- 
ritory, would  be  masters  of  the  world  :  the  Italians  placed  a 
line  of  demarcation  for  genius  and  taste,  and  marked  it  by 
their  mountains.  The  Spaniards  once  imagined  that  the 
conferences  of  God  with  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai  were  in  the 
Spanish  language.  If  a  Japanese  become  the  friend  of  a 
foreigner,  he  is  considered  as  committing  treason  to  his 
emperor  ;  and  rejected  as  a  false  brother  in  a  country 
which,  we  are  told,  is  figuratively  called  Tenka,  or  the 
Kingdom  under  the  Heavens.  John  Bullism  is  not  pecu- 
liar to  Englishmen ;  and  patriotism  is  a  noble  virtue,  when 
it  secures  our  independence  without  depriving  us  of  our 
humanity. 

*  A  passage  may  be  found  in  Aristotle's  Politics,  vol.  i.  c.  3-7;  where 
Aristotle  advises  Alexander  to  govern  the  Greeks  like  his  subjects,  and  the 
barbarians  like  slaves ;  for  that  the  one  he  was  to  consider  as  companions, 
and  the  other  as  creatures  of  an  inferior  race. 


44 


AUTOGRAPHS. 


The  civil  wars  of  the  League  in  France,  and  those  in 
England  under  Charles  the  First,  bear  the  most  striking 
resemblance;  and  in  examining  the  revolutionary  scenes 
exhibited  by  the  graver  in  the  famous  Satire  Menippee,  we 
discover  the  foreign  artist  revelling  in  the  caricature  of  his 
ludicrous  and  severe  exhibition ;  and  in  that  other  revolu- 
tionary period  of  La  Fronde,  there  was  a  mania  for  political 
songs  ;  the  curious  have  formed  them  into  collections ;  and 
we  not  only  have  "  the  Rump  Songs  "  of  Charles  the  First's 
times,  but  have  repeated  this  kind  of  evidence  of  the  public 
feeling  at  many  subsequent  periods.  Caricatures  and  'polit- 
ical songs  might  with  us  furnish  a  new  sort  of  history ;  and 
perhaps  would  preserve  some  truths,  and  describe  some  par- 
ticular events,  not  to  be  found  in  more  grave  authorities. 


AUTOGRAPHS* 

The  art  of  judging  of  the  characters  of  persons  by  their 
handwriting  can  only  have  any  reality,  when  the  pen,  acting 
without  restraint,  becomes  an  instrument  guided  by,  and 
indicative  of  the  natural  dispositions.  But  regulated  as  the 
pen  is  now  too  often  by  a  mechanical  process,  which  the 
present  race  of  writing-masters  seem  to  have  contrived  for 
their  own  convenience,  a  whole  school  exhibits  a  similar 
handwriting;  the  pupils  are  forced  in  their  automatic  motions, 
as  if  acted  on  by  the  pressure  of  a  steam-engine ;  a  bevy  of 
beauties  will  now  write  such  fac-similes  of  each  other,  that  in 
a  heap  of  letters  presented  to  the  most  sharp-sighted  lover, 
to  select  that  of  his  mistress — though  like  Bassanio  among 
the  caskets,  his  happiness  should  be  risked  on  the  choice — he 

*  A  small  volume  which  I  met  with  at  Paris,  entitled  "  L'Art  de  juger 
du  Caractere  des  Hommes  sur  leurs  Ecritures,"  is  curious  for  its  illustra- 
tions, consisting  of  twenty-four  plates,  exhibiting  fac-similes  of  the  writing  of 
eminent  and  other  persons,  correctly  taken  from  the  original  autographs. 


AUTOGEAPHS. 


would  despair  of  fixing  on  the  right  one,  all  appearing  to 
have  come  from  the  same  rolling-press.  Even  brothers  of 
different  tempers  have  been  taught  by  the  same  master  to 
give  the  same  form  to  their  letters,  the  same  regularity  to 
their  line,  and  have  made  our  handwritings  as  monotonous 
as  are  our  characters  in  the  present  habits  of  society.  The 
true  physiognomy  of  writing  will  be  lost  among  our  rising 
generation :  it  is  no  longer  a  face  that  we  are  looking  on,  but 
.a  beautiful  mask  of  a  single  pattern ;  and  the  fashionable 
handwriting  of  our  young  ladies  is  like  the  former  tight- 
lacing  of  their  mothers'  youthful  days,  when  every  one  alike 
had  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  fine  shape  ! 

Assuredly  Nature  would  prompt  every  individual  to  have 
a  distinct  sort  of  writing,  as  she  has  given  a  peculiar  counte- 
nance— a  voice — and  a  manner.  The  flexibility  of  the 
muscles  differs  with  every  individual,  and  the  hand  will 
follow  the  direction  of  the  thoughts,  and  the  emotions  and 
the  habits  of  the  writers.  The  phlegmatic  will  portray  his 
words,  while  the  playful  haste  of  the  volatile  will  scarcely 
sketch  them ;  the  slovenly  will  blot  and  efface  and  scrawl, 
while  the  neat  and  orderly-minded  will  view  themselves  in 
the  paper  before  their  eyes.  The  merchant's  clerk  will  not 
write  like  the  lawyer  or  the  poet.  Even  nations  are  dis- 
tinguished by  their  writing;  the  vivacity  and  variableness 
of  the  Frenchman,  and  the  delicacy  and  suppleness  of  the 
Italian,  are  perceptibly  distinct  from  the  slowness  and  strength 
of  pen  discoverable  in  the  phlegmatic  German,  Dane,  and 
Swede.  When  we  are  in  grief,  we  do  not  write  as  we  should 
in  joy.  The  elegant  and  correct  mind,  which  has  acquired 
the  fortunate  habit  of  a  fixity  of  attention,  will  write  with 
scarcely  an  erasure  on  the  page,  as  Fenelon  and  Gray  and 
Gibbon ;  while  we  find  in  Pope's  manuscripts  the  perpetual 
struggles  of  correction,  and  the  eager  and  rapid  interlinea- 
tions struck  off  in  heat.  Lavater's  notion  of  handwriting  is 
by  no  means  chimerical;  nor  was  General  Paoli  fanciful, 
when  he  told  Mr.  Northcote,  that  he  had  decided  on  the 


4G 


AUTOGRAPHS. 


character  and  dispositions  of  a  man  from  his  letters,  and  the 
handwriting. 

Long  before  the  days  of  Lavater,  Shenstone  in  one  of  his 
letters  said,  "  I  want  to  see  Mrs.  Jago's  handwriting,  that  I 
may  judge  of  her  temper."  One  great  truth  must  however 
be  conceded  to  the  opponents  of  the  physiognomy  of  writing; 
general  rules  only  can  be  laid  down.  Yet  the  vital  principle 
must  be  true  that  the  handwriting  bears  an  analogy  to  the 
character  of  the  writer,  as  all  voluntary  actions  are  charac-. 
teriitic  of  the  individual.  But  many  causes  operate  to 
counteract  or  obstruct  this  result.  I  am  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  handwritings  of  five  of  our  great  poets. 
The  first  in  early  life  acquired  among  Scottish  advocates  a 
handwriting  which  cannot  be  distinguished  from  that  of  his 
ordinary  brothers  ;  the  second,  educated  in  public  schools, 
where  writing  is  shamefully  neglected,  composes  his  sublime 
or  sportive  verses  in  a  school-boy's  ragged  scrawl,  as  if  he 
had  never  finished  his  tasks  with  the  writing-master;  the 
third  writes  his  highly-wrought  poetry  in  the  common  hand 
of  a  merchant's  clerk,  from  early  commercial  avocations  ;  the 
fourth  has  all  that  finished  neatness,  which  polishes  his 
verses ;  while  the  fifth  is  a  specimen  of  a  full  mind,  not  in 
the  habit  of  correction  or  alteration ;  so  that  he  appears  to 
be  printing  down  his  thoughts,  without  a  solitary  erasure. 
The  handwriting  of  the  first  and  third  poets,  not  indicative 
of  their  character,  we  have  accounted  for;  the  others  are 
admirable  specimens  of  characteristic  autographs. 

Oldys,  in  one  of  his  curious  notes,  was  struck  by  the  dis- 
tinctness of  character  in  the  handwritings  of  several  of  our 
kings.  He  observed  nothing  further  than  the  mere  fact,  and 
did  not  extend  his  idea  to  the  art  of  judging  of  the  natural 
character  by  the  writing.  Oldys  has  described  these  hand- 
writings with  the  utmost  correctness,  as  I  have  often  verified. 
I  shall  add  a  few  comments. 

"  Henry  the  Eighth  wrote  a  strong  hand,  but  as  if  he 
had  seldom  a  good  pen." — The  vehemence  of  his  character 


AUTOGRAPHS. 


47 


conveyed  itself  into  his  writing ;  bold,  hasty,  and  command- 
ing, I  have  no  doubt  the  assertor  of  the  Pope's  supremacy 
and  its  triumphant  destroyer,  split  many  a  good  quill. 

"  Edward  the  Sixth  wrote  a  fair  legible  hand." — We  have 
this  promising  young  prince's  diary,  written  by  his  own 
hand ;  in  all  respects  he  was  an  assiduous  pupil,  and  he  had 
scarcely  learnt  to  write  and  to  reign  when  we  lost  him. 

"  Queen  Elizabeth  writ  an  upright  hand,  like  the  ba?tard 
Italian."  She  was  indeed  a  most  elegant  caligrapher,  whom 
Roger  Ascham  had  taught  all  the  elegancies  of  the  pen. 
The  French  editor  of  the  little  autographical  work  I  have 
noticed  has  given  the  autograph  of  her  name,  which  she 
usually  wrote  in  a  very  large  tall  character,  and  painfully 
elaborate.  He  accompanies  it  with  one  of  the  Scottish 
Mary,  who  at  times  wrote  elegantly,  though  usually  in  un- 
even lines ;  when  in  haste  and  distress  of  mind,  in  several 
letters  during  her  imprisonment  which  I  have  read,  much 
the  contrary.  The  French  editor  makes  this  observation: 
"  Who  could  believe  that  these  writings  are  of  the  same 
epoch  ?  The  first  denotes  asperity  and  ostentation ;  the 
second  indicates  simplicity,  softness,  and  nobleness.  The 
one  is  that  of  Elizabeth,  queen  of  England ;  the  other  that 
of  her  cousin,  Mary  Stuart.  The  difference  of  these  two 
handwritings  answers  most  evidently  to  that  of  their  char- 
acters." 

"  James  the  First  writ  a  poor  ungainly  character,  all  awry, 
and  not  in  a  straight  line."  James  certainly  wrote  a  slovenly 
scrawl,  strongly  indicative  of  that  personal  negligence  which 
he  carried  into  all  the  little  things  of  life ;  and  Buchanan, 
who  had  made  him  an  excellent  scholar,  may  receive  the 
disgrace  of  his  pupil's  ugly  scribble,  which  sprawls  about  his 
careless  and  inelegant  letters. 

"  Charles  the  First  wrote  a  fair  open  Italian  hand,  and 
more  correctly  perhaps  than  any  prince  we  ever  had." 
Charles  was  the  first  of  our  monarchs  who  intended  to 
have  domiciliated  taste  in  the  kingdom,  and  it  might  have 


18 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


been  conjectured  from  this  unfortunate  prince,  who  so  finely 
discriminated  the  manners  of  the  different  painters,  which 
are  in  fact  their  handwritings,  that  he  would  not  have  been 
insensible  to  the  elegancies  of  the  pen. 

"  Charles  the  Second  wrote  a  little  fair  running  hand,  as 
if  wrote  in  haste,  or  uneasy  till  he  had  done."  Such  was 
the  writing  to  have  been  expected  from  this  illustrious  vaga- 
bond, who  had  much  to  write,  often  in  odd  situations,  and 
could  never  get  rid  of  his  natural  restlessness  and  vivacity. 

"  James  the  Second  writ  a  large  fair  hand/'  It  is  charac- 
terized by  his  phlegmatic  temper,  as  an  exact  detailer  of 
occurrences,  and  the  matter-of-business  genius  of  the  writer. 

"Queen  Anne  wrote  a  fair  round  hand;"  that  is  the 
writing  she  had  been  taught  by  her  master,  probably  without 
any  alteration  of  manner  naturally  suggested  by  herself ;  the 
copying  hand  of  a  common  character. 

The  subject  of  autographs  associates  itself  with  what  has 
been  dignified  by  its  professors  as  caligraphy,  or  the  art  of 
beautiful  writing.  As  I  have  something  curious  to  com- 
municate on  that  subject,  considered  professionally,  it  shall 
form  our  following  article. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 

There  is  a  very  apt  letter  from  James  the  First  to  Prince 
Henry  when  very  young,  on  the  neatness  and  fairness  of  his 
handwriting.  The  royal  father  suspecting  that  the  prince's 
tutor,  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Adam,  Newton,  had  helped  out 
the  young  prince  in  the  composition ;  and  that  in  this  speci- 
men of  caligraphy  he  had  relied  also  on  the  pains  of  Mr. 
Peter  Bales,  the  great  writing-master,  for  touching  up  his 
letters ;  his  majesty  shows  a  laudable  anxiety  that  the  prince 
should  be  impressed  with  the  higher  importance  of  the  one 
over  the  other.    James  shall  himself  speak.    "I  confess  I 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


49 


long  to  receive  a  letter  from  you  that  may  be  wholly  yours, 
as  well  matter  as  form;  as  well  formed  by  your  mind  as 
drawn  by  your  fingers ;  for  ye  may  remember,  that  in  my 
book  to  you  I  warn  you  to  beware  with  (of)  that  kind  of  wit 
that  may  fly  out  at  the  end  of  your  fingers  ;  not  that  I  com- 
mend not  a  fair  handwriting;  sed  hoc  facito,  Mud  non 
omittito :  and  the  other  is  multo  magis  prcecipuum"  Prince 
Henry,  indeed,  wrote  with  that  elegance  which  he  borrowed 
from  his  own  mind ;  and  in  an  age  when  such  minute 
elegance  was  not  universal  among  the  crowned  heads  of 
Europe.  Henry  IV.,  on  receiving  a  letter  from  prince 
Henry,  immediately  opened  it,  a  custom  not  usual  with  him, 
and  comparing  the  writing  with  the  signature,  to  decide 
whether  it  were  of  one  hand,  Sir  George  Carew,  observing 
the  French  king's  hesitation,  called  Mr.  Douglas  to  testify  to 
the  fact ;  on  which  Henry  the  Great,  admiring  an  art  in 
which  he  had  little  skill,  and  looking  on  the  neat  elegance  of 
the  writing  before  him,  politely  observed,  "  I  see  that  in 
writing  fair,  as  in  other  things,  the  elder  must  yield  to  the 
younger." 

Had  this  anecdote  of  neat  writing  reached  the  professors 
of  caligraphy,  who  in  this  country  have  put  forth  such  pain- 
ful panegyrics  on  the  art,  these  royal  names  had  unquestion- 
ably blazoned  their  pages.  Not  indeed  that  these  penmen 
require  any  fresh  inflation  ;  for  never  has  there  been  a  race 
of  professors  in  any  art,  who  have  exceeded  in  solemnity 
and  pretensions  the  practitioners  in  this  simple  and  mechani- 
cal craft.  I  must  leave  to  more  ingenious  investigators  of 
human  nature,  to  reveal  the  occult  cause  which  has  operated 
such  powerful  delusions  on  these  "  Vive  la  Plume ! "  men, 
who  have  been  generally  observed  to  possess  least  intellec- 
tual ability,  in  proportion  to  the  excellence  they  have  ob- 
tained in  their  own  art.  I  suspect  this  maniacal  vanity  is 
peculiar  to  the  writing-masters  of  England ;  and  I  can  only 
attribute  the  immense  importance  which  they  have  conceived 
of  their  art,  to  the  perfection  to  which  they  have  carried  the 

VOL.  IV.  4 


50 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


art  of  shorthand  writing;  an  art  which  was  always  better 
understood,  and  more  skilfully  practised,  in  England,  than  in 
any  other  country.  It  will  surprise  some,  when  they  learn 
that  the  artists  in  verse  and  colours,  poets  and  painters,  have 
not  raised  loftier  pretensions  to  the  admiration  of  mankind. 
Writing-masters,  or  caligraphers,  have  had  their  engraved 
"  effigies,"  with  a  Fame  in  flourishes,  a  pen  in  one  hand,  and 
a  trumpet  in  the  other ;  and  fine  verses  inscribed,  and  their 
very  lives  written  !    They  have  compared 

"  The  nimbly-turning  of  their  silver  quill," 

to  the  beautiful  in  art  and  the  sublime  in  invention  ;  nor  is 
this  wonderful,  since  they  discover  the  art  of  writing,  like 
the  invention  of  language,  in  a  divine  original ;  and  from 
the  tablets  of  stone  which  the  Deity  himself  delivered,  they 
trace  their  German  broad  text,  or  their  fine  running-hand. 
One,  for  "  the  bold  striking  of  those  words,  Vive  la  Plume" 
was  so  sensible  of  the  reputation  that  this  last  piece  of  com- 
mand of  hand  would  give  the  book  which  he  thus  adorned, 
and  which  his  biographer  acknowledges  was  the  product  of 
about  a  minute, — (but  then  how  many  years  of  flourishing 
had  that  single  minute  cost  him!) — that  he  claims  the  glory 
of  an  artist ;  observing, — 

"  We  seldom  find 
The  man  of  business  with  the  artist  join'd." 

Another  was  flattered  that  his  writing  could  impart  immor- 
tality to  the  most  wretched  compositions  ! — 

"  And  any  lines  prove  pleasing,  when  you  write." 

Sometimes  the  caligrapher  is  a  sort  of  hero : — 

"  To  you,  you  rare  commander  of  the  quill, 
Whose  wit  and  worth,  deep  learning,  and  high  skill, 
Speak  you  the  honour  of  Great  Tower  Hill!  " 

The  last  line  became  traditionally  adopted  by  those  who 
were  so  lucky  as  to  live  in  the  neighbourhood  of  this  Par- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


51 


nassus.  But  the  reader  must  form  some  notion  of  that  charm 
of  caligraphy  which  has  so  bewitched  its  professors,  when, 

"  Soft,  bold,  and  free,  your  manuscripts  still  please." 

u  How  justly  bold  in  Sxell's  improving  hand 
The  pen  at  once  joins  freedom  with  command ! 
With  softness  strong,  with  ornaments  not  vain, 
Loose  with  proportion,  and  with  neatness  plain; 
Not  swell' d,  not  full,  complete  in  every  part, 
And  artful  most,  when  not  affecting  art." 

And  these  describe  those  pencilled  knots  and  flourishes, 
"  the  angels,  the  men,  the  birds,  and  the  beasts,"  which,  as 
one  of  them  observed,  he  could 

u  Command 
"  Even  by  the  gentle  motion  of  his  hand" 

all  the  speciosa  miracula  of  caligraphy ; 

"  Thy  tender  strokes,  inimitably  fine, 
Crown  with  perfection  every  flowing  line; 
And  to  each  grand  performance  add  a  grace, 
As  curling  hair  adorns  a  beauteous  face: 
In  every  page  neio  fancies  give  delight, 
And  sporting  round  the  margin  charm  the  sight." 

One  Massey,  a  writing-master,  published,  in  1763,  "  The 
Origin  and  Progress  of  Letters."  The  great  singularity  of 
this  volume  is  "  A  new  species  of  biography  never  attempted 
before  in  English."  This  consists  of  the  lives  of  "  English 
Penmen,"  otherwise  writing-masters  !  If  some  have  foolishly 
enough  imagined  that  the  sedentary  lives  of  authors  are  void 
of  interest  from  deficient  incident  and  interesting  catastrophe, , 
what  must  they  think  of  the  barren  labours  of  those,  who,  in 
the  degree  they  become  eminent,  to  use  their  own  style,  in 
the  art  of  "  dish,  dash,  long-tail  fly,"  the  less  they  become 
interesting  to  the  public ;  for  what  can  the  most  skilful 
writing-master  do  but  wear  away  his  life  in  leaning  over  his 
pupil's  copy,  or  sometimes  snatch  a  pen  to  decorate  the 
margin,  though  he  cannot  compose  the  page  ?  Montaigne 
has  a  very  original  notion  on  writing-masters  :  he  says  that 


52 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


some  of  those  caligraphers  who  had  obtained  promotion  by 
their  excellence  in  the  art,  afterwards  affected  to  write  care- 
lessly, lest  their  promotion  should  be  suspected  to  have  been 
owing  to  such  an  ordinary  acquisition! 

Massey  is  an  enthusiast,  fortunately  for  his  subject.  He 
considers  that  there  are  schools  of  writing,  as  well  as  of 
painting  or  sculpture  ;  and  expatiates  with  the  eye  of  frater- 
nal feeling  on  "  a  natural  genius,  a  tender  stroke,  a  grand 
performance,  a  bold  striking  freedom,  and  a  liveliness  in  the 
sprigged  letters,  and  pencilled  knots  and  flourishes ; "  while 
this  Vasari  of  writing-masters  relates  the  controversies  and  the 
libels  of  many  a  rival  pen-nibber.  "  George  Shelley,  one  of 
the  most  celebrated  worthies  who  have  made  a  shining 
figure  in  the  commonwealth  of  English  caligraphy,  born  I 
suppose  of  obscure  parents,  because  brought  up  in  Christ's 
Hospital,  yet  under  the  humble  blue-coat  he  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  his  caligraphic  excellence  and  lasting  fame,  for  he  was 
elected  writing-master  to  the  hospital."  Shelley  published 
his  "  Natural  Writing ;  "  but,  alas  !  Snell,  another  blue-coat, 
transcended  the  other.  He  was  a  genius  who  would  "  bear 
no  brother  near  the  throne." — "  I  have  been  informed  that 
there  were  jealous  heart-burnings,  if  not  bickerings,  between 
him  and  Col.  Ayres,  another  of  our  great  reformers  in  the 
writing  commonweal,  both  eminent  men,  yet,  like  our  most 
celebrated  poets  Pope  and  Addison,  or,  to  carry  the  compar- 
ison still  higher,  like  Ccesar  and  Pompey,  one  could  bear  no 
superior,  and  the  other  no  equal."  Indeed,  the  great  Snell 
practised  a  little  stratagem  against  Mr.  Shelley,  for  which,  if 
writing-masters  held  courts-martial,  this  hero  ought  to  have 
appeared  before  his  brothers.  In  one  of  his  works  he  pro- 
cured a  number  of  friends  to  write  letters,  in  which  Massey 
confesses  "  are  some  satyrical  strokes  upon  Shelley,"  as  if  he 
had  arrogated  too  much  to  himself  in  his  book  of  "  Natural 
Writing."  They  find  great  fault  with  pencilled  knots  and 
sprigged  letters.  Shelley,  who  was  an  advocate  for  orna- 
ments in  fine  penmanship,  which  Snell  utterly  rejected,  had 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS.  53 

parodied  a  well-known  line  of  Herbert's  in  favour  of  his 

favourite  decorations  : — 

"  A  Knot  may  take  him  who  from  letters  flies, 
And  turn  delight  into  an  exercise." 

These  reflections  created  ill-blood,  and  even  an  open  differ- 
ence amongst  several  of  the  superior  artists  in  writing.  The 
commanding  genius  of  Snell  had  a  more  terrific  contest  when 
he  published  his  "  Standard  Rules,"  pretending  to  have  de- 
monstrated them  as  Euclid  would.  "  This  proved  a  bone  of 
contention,  and  occasioned  a  terrific  quarrel  between  Mr. 
Snell  and  Mr.  Clark.  This  quarrel  about  '  Standard  Rules  ' 
ran  so  high  between  them,  that  they  could  scarce  forbear 
scurrilous  language  therein,  and  a  treatment  of  each  other 
unbecoming  gentlemen!  Both  sides  in  this  dispute  had  their 
abettors ;  and  to  say  which  had  the  most  truth  and  reason, 
non  nostrum  est  tantas  componere  lites  ;  perhaps  both  parties 
might  be  too  fond  of  their  own  schemes.  They  should  have 
left  them  to  people  to  choose  which  they  liked  best."  A  can- 
did politican  is  our  Massey,  and  a  philosophical  historian  too ; 
for  he  winds  up  the  whole  story  of  this  civil  war  by  describ- 
ing its  result,  which  happened  as  all  such  great  controversies 
have  ever  closed.  "  Who  now-a-days  takes  those  Standard 
Rides,  either  one  or  the  other,  for  their  guide  in  writing  ?  " 
This  is  the  finest  lesson  ever  offered  to  the  furious  heads  of 
parties,  and  to  all  their  men  ;  let  them  meditate  on  the  noth- 
ingness of  their  "  Standard  Rules,"  by  the  fate  of  Mr.  Snell. 

It  was  to  be  expected,  when  once  these  writing-masters 
imagined  that  they  were  artists,  that  they  would  be  infected 
with  those  plague-spots  of  genius — envy,  detraction,  and  all 
the  jalousie  du  metier.  And  such  to  this  hour  we  find  them  ! 
An  extraordinary  scene  of  this  nature  has  long  been  exhibited 
in  my  neighbourhood,  where  two  doughty  champions  of  the 
quill  have  been  posting  up  libels  in  their  windows  respecting 
the  inventor  of  a  new  art  of  writing,  the  Carstairian,  or  the 
Lewisian  ?  When  the  great  German  philosopher  asserted 
that  he  had  discovered  the  method  of  fluxions  before  Sir 


54 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


Isaac,  and  when  the  dispute  grew  ?o  violent  that  even  the 
calm  Newton  sent  a  formal  defiance  in  set  terms,  and  got 
even  George  the  Second  to  try  to  arbitrate  (who  would  rather 
have  undertaken  a  campaign),  the  method  of  fluxions  was  no 
more  cleared  up  than  the  present  affair  between  our  two 
heroes  of  the  quill. 

A  recent  instance  of  one  of  these  egregious  caligraphers 
may  be  told  of  the  late  Tomkins.  This  vainest  of  writing- 
masters  dreamed  through  life  that  penmanship  was  one  of 
the  fine  arts,  and  that  a  writing-master  should  be  seated  with 
his  peers  in  the  Academy !  He  bequeathed  to  the  British 
Museum  his  opus  magnum — a  copy  of  Macklin's  Bible,  pro- 
fusely embellished  with  the  most  beautiful  and  varied  decora- 
tions of  his  pen  ;  and  as  he  conceived  that  both  the  workman 
and  the  work  would  alike  be  darling  objects  with  posterity, 
he  left  something  immortal  with  the  legacy,  his  fine  bust,  by 
Chantrey,  unaccompanied  by  which  they  were  not  to  receive 
the  unparalleled  gift !  When  Tomkins  applied  to  have  Ins 
bust,  our  great  sculptor  abated  the  usual  price,  and,  courte- 
ously kind  to  the  feelings  of  the  man,  said  that  he  considered 
Tomkins  as  an  artist !  It  was  the  proudest  day  of  the  life  of 
our  writing-master  ! 

But  an  eminent  artist  and  wit  now  living,  once  looking  on 
this  fine  bust  of  Tomkins,  declared,  that  "  this  man  had  died 
for  want  of  a  dinner  !  " — a  fate,  however,  not  so  lamentable 
as  it  appeared !  Our  penman  had  long  felt  that  he  stood 
degraded  in  the  scale  of  genius  by  not  being  received  at  the 
Academy,  at  least  among  the  class  of  engravers ;  the  next 
approach  to  academic  honour  he  conceived  would  be  that  of 
appearing  as  a  guest  at  their  annual  dinner.  These  invita- 
tions are  as  limited  as  they  are  select,  and  all  the  Academy 
persisted  in  considering  Tomkins  as  a  writing-master ! 
Many  a  year  passed,  every  intrigue  was  practised,  every  re- 
monstrance was  urged,  every  stratagem  of  courtesy  was  tried  ; 
but  never  ceasing  to  deplore  the  failure  of  his  hopes,  it 
preyed  on  his  spirits,  and  the  luckless  caligrapher  went  down 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


55 


to  his  grave — without  dining  at  the  Academy !  This  au- 
thentic anecdote  has  been  considered  as  "  satire  improperly 
directed  " — by  some  friend  of  Mr.  Tomkins — but  the  criticism 
is  much  too  grave  !  The  foible  of  Mr.  Tomkins  as  a  writing- 
master,  presents  a  striking  illustration  of  the  class  of  men 
here  delineated.  I  am  a  mere  historian — and  am  only  re- 
sponsible for  the  veracity  of  this  fact.  That  "  Mr.  Tomkins 
lived  in  familiar  intercourse  with  the  Royal  Academicians  of 
his  day,  and  was  a  frequent  guest  at  their  private  tables," 
and  moreover  was  a  most  worthy  man,  I  believe — but  is  it 
less  true  that  he  was  ridiculously  mortified  by  being  never 
invited  to  the  Academic  dinner,  on  account  of  his  caligraphy  ? 
He  had  some  reason  to  consider  that  his  art  was  of  the  ex- 
alted class,  to  which  he  aspired  to  raise  it,  when  this  friend 
concludes  his  eulogy  of  this  writing-master  thus — "  Mr. 
Tomkins,  as  an  artist,  stood  foremost  in  his  own  profession, 
and  his  name  will  be  handed  down  to  posterity  with  the 
Heroes  and  Statesmen,  whose  excellences  his  penmanship  has 
contributed  to  illustrate  and  to  commemorate."  I  always 
give  the  Pour  and  the  Contre  / 

Such  men  about  such  things  have  produced  public  contests, 
combats  a  Voutrance,  where  much  ink  was  spilled  by  the 
knights  in  a  joust  of  goose-quills ;  these  solemn  trials  have 
often  occurred  in  the  history  of  writing-masters,  which  is 
enlivened  by  public  defiances,  proclamations,  and  judicial 
trials  by  umpires  !  The  prize  was  usually  a  golden  pen  of 
some  value.  One  as  late  as  in  the  reign  of  Anne  took  place, 
between  Mr.  German  and  Mr.  More.  German  having 
courteously  insisted  that  Mr.  More  should  set  the  copy,  he 
thus  set  it,  ingeniously  quaint ! 

"  As  more,  and  More,  our  understanding  clears, 
So  more  and  more  our  ignorance  appears.*' 

The  result  of  this  pen-combat  was  really  lamentable  ;  they 
displayed  such  an  equality  of  excellence  that  the  umpires  re- 
fused to  decide,  till  one  of  them  espied  that  Mr.  German  had 


,36 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


omitted  the  tittle  of  an  i !  But  Mr.  More  wa?.  evidently  a 
man  of  genius,  not  only  by  his  couplet,  but  in  his  "  Essay  on 
the  Invention  of  Writing,"  where  occurs  this  noble  passage : 
"  Art  with  me  is  of  no  party.  A  noble  emulation  I  would 
cherish,  while  it  proceeded  neither  from,  nor  to  malevolence. 
Bales  had  his  Johnson,  Norman  his  Mason,  Ayres  his  Mat- 
lock and  his  Shelley;  yet  Art  the  while  was  no  sufferer. 
The  busy-body  who  officiously  employs  himself  in  creating 
misunderstandings  between  artists,  may  be  compared  to  a 
turn-stile,  which  stands  in  every  man's  way,  yet  hinders  no- 
body ;  and  he  is  the  slanderer  who  gives  ear  to  the  slan- 
der." * 

Among  these  knights  of  the  "  Plume  volante,"  whose 
chivalric  exploits  astounded  the  beholders,  must  be  distin- 
guished Peter  Bales  in  his  joust  with  David  Johnson.  In 
this  tilting-match  the  guerdon  of  caligraphy  was  won  by  the 
greatest  of  caligraphers  ;  its  arms  were  assumed  by  the  vic- 
tor, azure,  a  pen  or  ;  while  the  "  golden  pen,"  carried  away 
in  triumph,  was  painted  with  a  hand  over  the  door  of  the 
caligrapher.  The  history  of  this  renowned  encounter  was 
only  traditionally  known,  till  with  my  own  eyes  I  pondered 
on  this  whole  trial  of  skill  in  the  precious  manuscript  of  the 
champion  himself ;  who,  like  Caesar,  not  only  knew  how  to 
win  victories,  but  also  to  record  them.  Peter  Bales  was  a 
hero  of  such  transcendent  eminence,  that  his  name  has  en- 
tered into  our  history.  Holingshed  chronicles  one  of  his  cu- 
riosities of  microscopic  writing  at  a  time  when  the  taste  pre- 
vailed for  admiring  writing  which  no  eye  could  read  !  In  the 
compass  of  a  silver  penny  this  caligrapher  put  more  things 
than  would  fill  several  of  these  pages.  He  presented  Queen 
Elizabeth  with  the  manuscript  set  in  a  ring  of  gold  covered 
with  a  crystal ;  he  had  also  contrived  a  magnifying  glass  of 
such  power,  that,  to  her  delight  and  wonder,  her  majesty 
read  the  whole  volume,  which  she  held  on  her  thumb  nail, 

*  I  have  not  met  with  More's  book,  and  am  obliged  to  transcribe  this 
from  the  Biog.  Brit. 


THE  HIST  OK  Y  OF  WRITING-MASTERS.  57 


and  "  commended  the  same  to  the  lords  of  the  council,  and 
the  ambassadors  ; "  and  frequently,  as  Peter  often  heard,  did 
her  majesty  vouchsafe  to  wear  this  caligraphic  ring. 

"  Some  will  think  I  labour  on  a  cobweb  " — modestly  ex- 
claimed Bales  in  his  narrative,  and  his  present  historian 
much  fears  for  himself!  The  reader's  gratitude  will  not  be 
proportioned  to  my  pains,  in  condensing  such  copious  pages 
into  the  size  of  a  "  silver  penny,"  but  without  its  worth  ! 

For  a  whole  year  had  David  Johnson  affixed  a  challenge 
"  To  any  one  who  should  take  exceptions  to  this  my  writing 
and  teaching."  He  was  a  young  friend  of  Bales,  daring  and 
longing  for  an  encounter;  yet  Bales  was  magnanimously 
silent,  till  he  discovered  that  he  was  "  doing  much  less  in 
writing  and  teaching "  since  this  public  challenge  was  pro- 
claimed !  He  then  set  up  his  counter  challenge,  and  in  one 
hour  afterwards  Johnson  arrogantly  accepted  it,  "  in  a  most 
despiteful  and  disgraceful  manner."  Bales's  challenge  was 
delivered  "  in  good  terms."  "  To  all  Englishmen  and  stran- 
gers." It  was  to  write  for  a  gold  pen  of  twenty  pounds  val- 
ue in  all  kinds  of  hands,  "  best,  straightest,  and  fastest,"  and 
most  kind  of  ways ;  "  a  full,  a  mean,  a  small,  with  line,  and 
without  line ;  in  a  slow  set  hand,  a  mean  facile  hand,  and  a 
fast  running  hand  ;"  and  further,  "to  write  truest  and  speed- 
iest, most  secretary  and  clerk-like,  from  a  man's  mouth  read- 
ing or  pronouncing,  either  English  or  Latin." 

Young  Johnson  had  the  hardihood  now  of  turning  the 
tables  on  his  great  antagonist,  accusing  the  veteran  Bales  of 
arrogance.  Such  an  absolute  challenge,  says  he,  was  never 
witnessed  by  man,  "  without  exception  of  any  in  the  world ! " 
And  a  few  days  after  meeting  Bales,  "  of  set  purpose  to  af- 
front and  disgrace  him  what  he  could,  showed  Bales  a  piece 
of  writing  of  secretary's  hand,  which  he  had  very  much  la- 
boured in  fine  abortive  parchment,"  *  uttering  to  the  challen- 

*  This  was  written  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Holyoke  notices  "  virgin- 
perchment  made  of  an  abortive  skin;  membrano  virgo."  Peacham  on 
Drawing,  calls  parchment  simply  an  abortive. 


58 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


ger,  these  words  :  "  Mr.  Bales,  give  me  one  shilling  out  of 
your  purse,  and  if  within  six  months  you  better,  or  equal 
this  piece  of  writing,  I  will  give  you  forty  pounds  for  it." 
This  legal  deposit  of  the  shilling  was  made,  and  the  challen- 
ger, or  appellant,  was  thereby  bound  by  law  to  the  perform- 
ance. 

The  day  before  the  trial  a  printed  declaration  was  affixed 
throughout  the  city,  taunting  Bales's  "  proud  poverty,"  and 
his  pecuniary  motives,  as  "  a  thing  ungentle,  base,  and  mer- 
cenary, and  not  answerable  to  the  dignity  of  the  golden  pen !" 
Johnson  declares  he  would  maintain  his  challenge  for  a  thou- 
sand pounds  more,  but  for  the  respondent's  inability  to  per- 
form a  thousand  groats.  Bales  retorts  on  the  libel ;  declares 
it  as  a  sign  of  his  rival's  weakness,  "  yet  who  so  bold  as  blind 
Bayard,  that  hath  not  a  word  of  Latin  to  cast  at  a  dog,  or 
say  Bo  !  to  a  goose  !  " 

On  Michaelmas  day,  1595,  the  trial  opened  before  five 
judges  :  the  appellant  and  the  respondent  appeared  at  the 
appointed  place,  and  an  ancient  gentleman  was  intrusted  with 
"  the  golden  pen."  In  the  first  trial,  for  the  manner  of  teach- 
ing scholars,  after  Johnson  had  taught  his  pupil  a  fortnight, 
he  would  not  bring  him  forward !  This  was  awarded  in 
favour  of  Bales. 

The  second,  for  secretary  and  clerk-like  writing,  dictating 
to  them  both  in  English  and  in  Latin,  Bales  performed  best, 
being  first  done  ;  written  straightest  without  line,  with  true 
orthography :  the  challenger  himself  confessing  that  he  wanted 
the  Latin  tongue,  and  was  no  clerk  ! 

The  third  and  last  trial  for  fair  writing  in  sundry  kinds 
of  hands,  the  challenger  prevailed  for  the  beauty  and  most 
"  authentic  proportion,"  and  for  the  superior  variety  of  the 
Roman  hand.  In  the  court-hand  the  respondent  exceeded 
the  appellant,  and  likewise  in  the  set  text ;  and  in  bastard 
secretary  was  also  somewhat  perfecter. 

At  length  Bales,  perhaps  perceiving  an  equilibrium  in  the 
judicial  decision,  to  overwhelm  his  antagonist  presented  what 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS.  59 


he  distinguishes  as  his  "  master-piece,"  composed  of  secretary 
and  Roman  hand  four  ways  varied,  and  offering  the  defend- 
ant to  let  pass  all  his  previous  advantages  if  he  could  better 
this  specimen  of  caligraphy  !  The  challenger  was  silent !  At 
this  moment  some  of  the  judges  perceiving  that  the  decision 
must  go  in  favour  of  Bales,  in  consideration  of  the  youth  of 
the  challenger,  lest  he  might  be  disgraced  to  the  world, 
requested  the  other  judges  not  to  pass  judgment  in  public. 
Bales  assures  us,  that  he  in  vain  remonstrated ;  for  by  these 
means  the  winning  of  the  golden  pen  might  not  be  so  fa- 
mously spread  as  otherwise  it  would  have  been.  To  Bales 
the  prize  was  awarded.  But  our  history  has  a  more  interest 
ing  close  ;  the  subtle  Machiavelism  of  the  first  challenger  ! 

"When  the  great  trial  had  closed,  and  Bales,  carrying  off 
the  golden  pen,  exultingly  had  it  painted  and  set  up  for  his 
sign,  the  baffled  challenger  went  about  reporting  that  he  had 
won  the  golden  pen,  but  that  the  defendant  had  obtained  the 
same  by  "  plots  and  shifts,  and  other  base  and  cunning  prac- 
tices." Bales  vindicated  his  claim,  and  offered  to  show  the 
world  his  "  master-piece  "  which  had  acquired  it.  Johnson 
issued  an  "  Appeal  to  all  impartial  Pen-men,"  which  he 
spread  in  great  numbers  through  the  city  for  ten  days,  a  libel 
against  the  judges  and  the  victorious  defendant !  He  de- 
clared that  there  had  been  a  subtle  combination  with  one  of 
the  judges  concerning  the  place  of  trial ;  which  he  expected 
to  have  been  "  before  pen-men,"  but  not  before  a  multitude 
like  a  stage-play,  and  shouts  and  tumults,  with  which  the 
challenger  had  hitherto  been  unacquainted.  The  judges 
were  intended  to  be  twelve ;  but  of  the  five,  four  were  the 
challenger's  friends,  honest  gentlemen,  but  unskilled  in  judg- 
ing of  most  hands ;  and  he  offered  again  forty  pounds  to  be 
allowed  in  six  months  to  equal  Bales's  master-piece.  And 
he  closes  his  "  appeal "  by  declaring  that  Bales  had  lost  in 
several  parts  of  the  trial,  neither  did  the  judges  deny  that 
Bales  possessed  himself  of  the  golden  pen  by  a  trick  !  Before 
judgment  was  awarded,  alleging  the  sickness  of  his  wife  to  be 


60 


THE  HISTORY  OF  WRITING-MASTERS. 


extreme,  he  desired  she  might  have  a  sight  of  the  golden  pen 
to  comfort  her  !  The  ancient  gentleman  who  was  the  holder, 
taking  the  defendant's  word,  allowed  the  golden  pen  to  be 
carried  to  the  sick  wife  ;  and  Bales  immediately  pawned  it, 
and  afterwards,  to  make  sure  work,  sold  it  at  a  great  loss,  so 
that  when  the  judges  met  for  their  definite  sentence,  nor  pen 
nor  penny-worth  was  to  be  had  !  The  judges  being  ashamed 
of  their  own  conduct,  were  compelled  to  give  such  a  verdict 
as  suited  the  occasion. 

Bales  rejoins ;  he  publishes  to  the  universe  the  day  and 
the  hour  when  the  judges  brought  the  golden  pen  to  his 
house,  and  while  he  checks  the  insolence  of  this  Bobadil,  to 
show  himself  no  recreant,  assumes  the  golden  pen  for  his  sign. 

Such  is  the  shortest  history  I  could  contrive  of  this  chiv- 
alry of  the  pen ;  something  mysteriously  clouds  over  the  fate 
of  the  defendant ;  Bales's  history,  like  Caesar's,  is  but  an  ex- 
parte  evidence.  Who  can  tell  whether  he  has  not  slurred 
over  his  defeats,  and  only  dwelt  on  his  victories  ? 

There  is  a  strange  phrase  connected  with  the  art  of  the 
caligrapher,  which  I  think  may  be  found  in  most,  if  not  in  all 
modern  languages,  to  write  like  an  angel !  Ladies  have  been 
frequently  compared  with  angels ;  they  are  beautiful  as  an- 
gels, and  sing  and  dance  like  angels  ;  but,  however  intelligible 
these  are,  we  do  not  so  easily  connect  penmanship  with  the 
other  celestial  accomplishments.  This  fanciful  phrase,  how- 
ever, has  a  very  human  origin.  Among  those  learned  Greeks 
who  emigrated  to  Italy,  and  afterwards  into  France,  in  the 
reign  of  Francis  I.  was  one  Angelo  Vergecio,  whose  beautiful 
caligraphy  excited  the  admiration  of  the  learned.  The  French 
monarch  had  a  Greek  fount  cast,  modelled  by  his  writing. 
The  learned  Henry  Stephens,  who,  like  our  Porson  for  cor- 
rectness and  delicacy,  was  one  of  the  most  elegant  writers 
of  Greek,  had  learnt  the  practice  from  our  Angelo.  His 
name  became  synonymous  for  beautiful  writing,  and  gave 
birth  to  the  vulgar  proverb,  or  familiar  phrase,  to  write  like 
an  angel/ 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


61 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  country,  which  has  long  lost  its 
political  independence,  may  be  considered  as  the  true  parent 
of  modern  history.  The  greater  part  of  their  historians  have 
abstained  from  the  applause  of  their  contemporaries,  while 
they  have  not  the  less  elaborately  composed  their  posthumous 
folios,  consecrated  solely  to  truth  and  posterity  !  The  true 
principles  of  national  glory  are  opened  by  the  grandeur  of 
the  minds  of  these  assertors  of  political  freedom.  It  was 
their  indignant  spirit,  seeking  to  console  its  injuries  by  con- 
fiding them  to  their  secret  manuscripts,  which  raised  up  this 
singular  phenomenon  in  the  literary  world. 

Of  the  various  causes  which  produced  such  a  lofty  race 
of  patriots,  one  is  prominent.  The  proud  recollections  of 
their  Roman  fathers  often  troubled  the  dreams  of  the  sons. 
The  petty  rival  republics,  and  the  petty  despotic  principal- 
ities, which  had  started  up  from  some  great  families,  who  at 
first  came  forward  as  the  protectors  of  the  people  from  their 
exterior  enemies,  or  their  interior  factions,  at  length  settled 
into  a  corruption  of  power ;  a  power  which  had  been  con- 
ferred on  them  to  preserve  liberty  itself !  These  factions 
often  shook,  by  their  jealousies,  their  fears,  and  their  hatreds, 
that  divided  land,  which  groaned  whenever  they  witnessed 
the  "  Ultramontanes "  descending  from  their  Alps  and  their 
Apennines.  Petrarch,  in  a  noble  invective,  warmed  by  Livy 
and  ancient  Rome,  impatiently  beheld  the  French  and  the 
Germans  passing  the  mounts.  "Enemies,"  he  cries,  "so 
often  conquered,  prepare  to  strike  with  swords,  which  for- 
merly served  us  to  raise  our  trophies :  shall  the  mistress  of  the 
world  bear  chains  forged  by  hands  which  she  has  so  often 
bound  to  their  backs  ?  "  Machiavel,  in  his  "  Exhortations  to 
free  Italy  from  the  barbarians,"  rouses  his  country  against 
their  changeable  masters,  the  Germans,  the  French,  and  the 
Spaniards ;  closing  with  the  verse  of  Petrarch,  that  short 


62 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


shall  be  the  battle  for  which  patriot  virtue  arms  to  show  the 
world — 

"  che  1'  antico  valore 
Ne  gl'  Italici  cuor  non  e  ancor  morto." 

Nor  has  this  sublime  patriotism  declined  even  in  more 
recent  times ;  I  cannot  resist  from  preserving  in  this  place  a 
sonnet  by  Filicaja,  which  I  could  never  read  without  parti- 
cipating in  the  agitation  of  the  writer,  for  the  ancient  glory 
of  his  degenerated  country !  The  energetic  personification 
of  the  close,  perhaps,  surpasses  even  his  more  celebrated 
sonnet,  preserved  in  Lord  Byron's  notes  to  the  fourth  canto 
of  «  Childe  Harold." 

"  Dov'  e  Italia,  il  tuo  braccio?  e  a  che  ti  servi 

Tu  dell'  altrui  ?  non  e  s'  io  scorgo  il  vero, 

Di  chi  t'  offende  il  defensor  men  fero 

Ambe  nemici  sono,  arabo  fur  servi. 
Cosl  dunque  1'  on  or,  cosl  conservi 

Gli  avanzi  tu  del  glorioso  Impero? 

Cosi  al  valor,  cosi  al  valor  primiero 

Che  a  te  fede  giuro,  la  fede  osservi  ? 
Or  va ;  repudia  il  valor  prisco,  e  sposa 

L'  ozio,  e  fra  il  sangue,  i  gemiti,  e  le  strida 

Nel  periglio  maggior  dormi  e  riposa ! 
Donni,  Adultera  vil !  fin  die  omicida 

Spada  ultrice  ti  svegli,  e  sonnacchiosa, 

E  nuda  in  braccio  al  tuo  fedel  t'uccida!  " 

"  Oh,  Italy !  where  is  thine  arm  ?  What  purpose  serves 

So  to  be  helped  by  others  ?  Deem  I  right, 
Among  offenders  thy  defender  stands  ? 
Both  are  thy  enemies — both  were  thy  servants ! 
Thus  dost  thou  honour — thus  dost  thou  preserve 
The  mighty  boundaries  of  the  glorious  empire? 
And  thus  to  Valour,  to  thy  pristine  Valour 
That  swore  its  faith  to  thee,  thy  faith  thou  keep'st? 
Go !  and  divorce  thyself  from  thy  old  Valiance, 
And  marry  Idleness :  and  midst  the  blood, 
The  heavy  groans  and  cries  of  agony, 
In  thy  last  danger  sleep,  and  seek  repose ! 
Sleep,  vile  Adulteress !  the  homicidal  sword 
Vengeful  shall  waken  thee!  and  lull'd  to  slumber, 
While  naked  in  thy  minion's  arms,  shall  strike"! " 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS.  63 


Among  the  domestic  contests  of  Italy  the  true  principles 
of  political  freedom  were  developed ;  and  in  that  country  we 
may  find  the  origin  of  that  philosophical  history,  which 
includes  so  many  important  views  and  so  many  new  results 
unknown  to  the  ancients. 

Machiavel  seems  to  have  been  the  first  writer  who  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  what  may  be  called  comparative  history. 
He  it  was  who  first  sought  in  ancient  history  for  the  materials 
which  were  to  illustrate  the  events  of  his  own  times  ;  by 
fixing  on  analogous  facts,  similar  personages,  and  parallel 
periods.  This  was  enlarging  the  field  of  history,  and  open- 
ing a  new  combination  for  philosophical  speculation.  His 
profound  genius  advanced  still  further ;  he  not  only  ex- 
plained modern  by  ancient  history,  but  he  deduced  those 
results  or  principles  founded  on  this  new  sort  of  evidence, 
which  guided  him  in  forming  his  opinions.  History  had 
hitherto  been,  if  we  except  Tacitus,  but  a  story  well  told ; 
and  by  writers  of  limited  capacity,  the  detail  and  number  of 
facts  had  too  often  been  considered  as  the  only  valuable  por- 
tion of  history.  An  erudition  of  facts  is  not  the  philosophy 
of  history ;  an  historian  unskilful  in  the  art  of  applying  his 
facts  amasses  impure  ore,  which  he  cannot  strike  into  coin. 
The  chancellor  D'Aguesseau,  in  his  instructions  to  his  son  on 
the  study  of  history,  has  admirably  touched  on  this  distinc- 
tion. "  Minds  which  are  purely  historical  mistake  a  fact  for 
an  argument ;  they  are  so  accustomed  to  satisfy  themselves 
by  repeating  a  great  number  of  facts  and  enriching  their 
memory,  that  they  become  incapable  of  reasoning  on  prin- 
ciples. It  often  happens  that  the  result  of  their  knowledge 
breeds  confusion  and  universal  indecision ;  for  their  facts, 
often  contradictory,  only  raise  up  doubts.  The  superfluous 
and  the  frivolous  occupy  the  place  of  what  is  essential  and 
solid,  or  at  least  so  overload  and  darken  it,  that  we  must  sail 
with  them  in  a  sea  of  trifles  to  get  to  firm  land.  Those  who 
only  value  the  philosophical  part  of  history,  fall  into  an 
opposite  extreme ;  they  judge  of  what  has  been  done  by  that 


04 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


which  should  be  done ;  while  the  others  always  decide  on 
what  should  be  done  by  that  which  has  been :  the  first  are 
the  dupes  of  their  reasoning,  the  second  of  the  facts  which 
they  mistake  for  reasoning.  We  should  not  separate  two 
things  which  ought  always  to  go  in  concert,  and  mutually 
lend  an  aid,  reason  and  example  I  Avoid  equally  the  con- 
tempt of  some  philosophers  for  the  science  of  facts,  and  the 
distaste  or  the  incapacity  which  those  who  confine  them- 
selves to  facts  often  contract  for  whatever  depends  on  pure 
reasoning.  True  and  solid  philosophy  should  direct  us  in 
the  study  of  history,  and  the  study  of  history  should  give 
perfection  to  philosophy."  Such  was  the  enlightened  opinion, 
as  far  back  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
of  the  studious  chancellor  of  France,  before  the  more  recent 
designation  of  Philosophical  History  was  so  generally  re- 
ceived, and  so  familiar  on  our  title-pages. 

From  the  moment  that  the  Florentine  secretary  conceived 
the  idea  that  the  history  of  the  Roman  people,  opening  such 
varied  spectacles  of  human  nature,  served  as  a  point  of  com- 
parison to  which  he  might  perpetually  recur  to  try  the  ana- 
logous facts  of  other  nations,  and  the  events  passing  under 
his  own  eye ;  a  new  light  broke  out  and  ran  through  the  vast 
extents  of  history.  The  maturity  of  experience  seemed  to 
have  been  obtained  by  the  historian,  in  his  solitary  medita- 
tion. Livy  in  the  grandeur  of  Rome,  and  Tacitus  in  its 
fated  decline,  exhibited  for  Machiavel  a  moving  picture  of 
his  own  republics — the  march  of  destiny  in  all  human 
governments !  The  text  of  Livy  and  Tacitus  revealed  to 
him  many  an  imperfect  secret — the  fuller  truth  he  drew  from 
the  depth  of  his  own  observations  on  his  own  times.  In 
Machiavel's  "Discourses  on  Livy,"  we  may  discover  the 
foundations  of  our  Philosophical  History. 

The  example  of  Machiavel,  like  that  of  all  creative  genius, 
influenced  the  character  of  his  age,  and  his  history  of  Flo- 
rence produced  an  emulative  spirit  among  a  new  dynasty  of 
historians. 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


65 


The  Italian  historians  have  proved  themselves  to  be  an 
extraordinary  race,  for  they  devoted  their  days  to  the  com- 
position of  historical  works,  which  they  were  certain  could 
not  see  the  light  during  their  lives  !  They  nobly  determined 
that  their  works  should  be  posthumous,  rather  than  be  com- 
pelled to  mutilate  them  for  the  press.  These  historians  were 
rather  the  saints  than  the  martyrs  of  history  ;  they  did  not 
always  personally  suffer  for  truth,  but  during  their  protracted 
labour  they  sustained  their  spirit,  by  anticipating  their  glori- 
fied after-state. 

Among  these  Italian  historians  must  be  placed  the  illus- 
trious Guicciardini,  the  friend  of  Machiavel.  No  perfect 
edition  of  this  historian  existed  till  recent  times.  The 
history  itself  was  posthumous ;  nor  did  his  nephew  venture 
to  publish  it,  till  twenty  years  after  the  historian's  death. 
He  only  gave  the  first  sixteen  books,  and  these  castrated. 
The  obnoxious  passages  consisted  of  some  statements  relating 
to  the  papal  court,  then  so  important  in  the  affairs  of  Europe ; 
some  account  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  papal  power ; 
some  eloquent  pictures  of  the  abuses  and  disorders  of  that 
corrupt  court ;  and  some  free  caricatures  on  the  government 
of  Florence.  The  precious  fragments  were  fortunately 
preserved  in  manuscript,  and  the  Protestants  procured  tran- 
scripts which  they  published  separately,  but  which  were  long 
very  rare.*  All  the  Italian  editions  continued  to  be  re- 
printed in  the  same  truncated  condition,  and  appear  only  to 
have  been  reinstated  in  the  immortal  history,  so  late  as  in 
1775 !  Thus  it  required  two  centuries,  before  an  editor 
could  venture  to  give  the  world  the  pure  and  complete  text 
of  the  manuscript  of  the  lieutenant-general  of  the  papal 
army,  who  had  been  so  close  and  so  indignant  an  observer 
of  the  Roman  cabinet. 

Adriani,  whom  his  son  entitles  gentilnomo  Fiorentino,  the 

*  They  were  printed  at  Basle  in  1569— at  London  in  1595— in  Amster- 
dam, 1663.  How  many  attempts  to  echo  the  voice  of  suppressed  truth  \ 
—Haym's  Bib.  Ital.  1803. 

VOL.  IV.  5 


GG 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


writer  of  the  pleasing  dissertation  "  on  the  ancient  painters 
noticed  by  Pliny,"  prefixed  to  his  friend  Vasari's  biographies, 
wrote,  as  a  continuation  of  Guicciardini,  a  history  of  his  own 
times  in  twenty-two  books,  of  which  Denina  gives  the  highest 
character  for  its  moderate  spirit,  and  from  which  De  Thou 
has  largely  drawn  and  commends  for  its  authenticity.  Our 
author,  however,  did  not  venture  to  publish  his  history  during 
his  lifetime :  it  was  after  his  death  that  his  son  became  the 
editor. 

Nardi,  of  a  noble  family  and  high  in  office,  famed  for  a 
translation  of  Livy  which  rivals  its  original  in  the  pleasure 
it  affords,  in  his  retirement  from  public  affairs  wrote  a  history 
of  Florence,  which  closes  with  the  loss  of  the  liberty  of  his 
country,  in  1531.  It  was  not  published  till  fifty  years  after 
his  death ;  even  then  the  editors  suppressed  many  passages 
which  are  found  in  manuscript  in  the  libraries  of  Florence 
and  Venice,  with  other  historical  documents  of  this  noble  and 
patriotic  historian. 

About  the  same  time  the  senator  Philip  Nerli  was  writing 
his  "  Commentarj  de'  fatti  civili?  wrhich  had  occurred  in 
Florence.  He  gave  them  with  his  dying  hand  to  his  nephew, 
who  presented  the  MSS.  to  the  Grand  Duke ;  yet  although 
this  work  is  rather  an  apology  than  a  crimination  of  the 
Medici  family  for  their  ambitious  views  and  their  overgrown 
power,  probably  some  state-reason  interfered  to  prevent  the 
publication,  which  did  not  take  place  till  150  years  after  the 
death  of  the  historian ! 

Bernardo  Segni  composed  a  history  of  Florence  still  more 
valuable,  which  shared  the  same  fate  as  that  of  Nerli.  It 
was  only  after  his  death  that  his  relatives  accidentally  dis- 
covered this  history  of  Florence,  which  the  author  had  care- 
fully concealed  during  his  lifetime.  He  had  abstained  from 
communicating  to  any  one  the  existence  of  such  a  work  while 
he  lived,  that  he  might  not  be  induced  to  check  the  freedom 
of  his  pen,  nor  compromise  the  cause  and  the  interests  of 
truth.    His  heirs  presented  it  to  one  of  the  Medici  family, 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


G7 


who  threw  it  aside.  Another  copy  had  been  more  care- 
fully preserved,  from  which  it  was  printed,  in  1713,  about 
150  years  after  it  had  been  written.  It  appears  to  have 
excited  great  curiosity,  for  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy  observes, 
that  the  scarcity  of  this  history  is  owing  to  the  circumstance 
"of  the  Grand  Duke  having  bought  up  the  copies."  Du 
Fresnoy,  indeed,  has  noticed  more  than  once  this  sort  of 
address  of  the  Grand  Duke  ;  for  he  observes  on  the  Floren- 
tine history  of  Bruto,  that  the  work  was  not  common ;  the 
Grand  Duke  having  bought  up  the  copies,  to  suppress  them. 
The  author  was  even  obliged  to  fly  from  Italy,  for  having 
delivered  his  opinions  too  freely  on  the  house  of  the  Medici. 
This  honest  historian  thus  expresses  himself  at  the  close  of 
his  work :  "  My  design  has  but  one  end  ;  that  our  posterity 
may  learn  by  these  notices  the  root  and  the  causes  of  so 
many  troubles  which  we  have  suffered,  while  they  expose 
the  malignity  of  those  men  who  have  raised  them  up,  or 
prolonged  them ;  as  well  as  the  goodness  of  those  who  did 
all  which  they  could  to  turn  them  away." 

It  was  the  same  motive,  the  fear  of  offending  the  great 
personages  or  their  families,  of  whom  these  historians  had  so 
freely  written,  which  deterred  Benedetto  Varchi  from  pub- 
lishing his  well-known  "  Storie  Florentine,"  which  was  not 
given  to  the  world  till  1721,  a  period  which  appears  to  have 
roused  the  slumbers  of  the  literary  men  of  Italy  to  recur  to 
their  native  historians.  Varchi,  who  wrote  with  so  much  zeal 
the  history  of  his  father-land,  is  noticed  by  Nardi  as  one  who 
never  took  an  active  part  in  the  events  he  records ;  never 
having  combined  with  any  party,  and  living  merely  as  a 
spectator.  This  historian  closes  the  narrative  of  a  horrid 
crime  of  Peter  Lewis  Farnese  with  this  admirable  reflection  : 
"  I  know  well  this  story,  with  many  others  which  I  have 
freely  exposed,  may  hereafter  prevent  the  reading  of  my 
history ;  but  also  I  know,  that  besides  what  Tacitus  has  said 
on  this  subject,  the  great  duty  of  an  historian  is  not  to  be 
more  careful  of  the  reputation  of  persons  than  is  suitable 


68 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


•with  truth,  which  is  to  be  preferred  to  all  thing?,  however 
detrimental  it  may  be  to  the  writer."  * 

Such  was  that  free  manner  of  thinking  and  of  writing 
which  prevailed  in  these  Italian  historians,  who,  often  living 
in  the  midst  of  the  ruins  of  popular  freedom,  poured  forth 
their  injured  feelings  in  their  secret  pages ;  without  the  hope, 
and  perhaps  without  the  wish,  of  seeing  them  published  in 
their  lifetime ;  a  glorious  example  of  self-denial  and  lofty- 
patriotism  ! 

Had  it  been  inquired  of  these  writers  why  they  did  not 
publish  their  histories,  they  might  have  answered,  in  nearly 
the  words  of  an  ancient  sage,  "  Because  1  am  not  permitted 
to  write  as  I  would ;  and  I  would  not  write  as  I  am  permit- 

*  My  friend,  Mr.  Merivale,  whose  critical  research  is  only  equalled  by 
the  elegance  of  his  taste,  has  supplied  me  with  a  note  which  proves,  but 
too  well,  that  even  writers  who  compose  uninfluenced  by  party-feelings, 
may  not,  however,  be  sufficiently  scrupulous  in  weighing  the  evidence  of 
the  facts  which  they  collect.  Mr.  Merivale  observes,  "  The  strange  and 
improbable  narrative  with  which  Varchi  has  the  misfortune  of  closing  his 
history,  should  not  have  been  even  hinted  at  without  adding,  that  it  is 
denounced  by  other  writers  as  a  most  impudent  forgery,  invented  years 
after  the  occurrence  is  supposed  to  have  happened,  by 'the  'Apostate1 
bishop  Petrus  Paulus  Vergerius.  See  its  refutation  in  Amiani,  Hist,  di 
Fano,  ii.  149,  et  seq.  160. 

"  Varchf  s  character,  as  an  historian,  cannot  but  suffer  greatly  from  his 
having  given  it  insertion  on  such  authority.  The  responsibility  of  an 
author  for  the  truth  of  what  he  relates  should  render  us  very  cautious  of 
giving  credit  to  the  writers  of  memoirs  not  intended  to  see  the  light  till  a 
distant  period.  The  credibility  of  Vergerius,  as  an  acknowledged  libeller 
of  Pope  Paul  III.  and  his  family,  appears  still  more  conclusively  from  his 
article  in  Bayle,  note  K."  It  must  be  added,  that  the  calumny  of  Verge- 
rius may  be  found  in  Wolfius's  Lect.  Mem.  ii.  691,  in  a  tract  de  Idolo 
Lauretano,  published  1556.  Varchi  is  more  particular  in  his  details  of 
this  monstrous  tale.  Vergerius's  libels,  universally  read  at  the  time, 
though  they  were  collected  afterwards,  are  now  not  to  be  met  with,  even 
in  public  libraries.  Whether  there  was  any  truth  in  the  story  of  Peter 
Lewis  Farnese  I  know  not ;  but  crimes  of  as  monstrous  a  dye  occur  in  the 
authentic  Guicciardini.  The  story  is  not  yet  forgotten,  since  in  the  last 
edition  of  Haym's  Biblioteca  Italiana,  the  best  edition  is  marked  as  that 
which  at  p.  639  contains  "  la  sceleraiezza  di  Pier  Lewis  Farnese."  I  am  of 
opinion  that  Varchi  believed  the  story,  by  the  solemnity  of  his  proposition. 
Whatever  be  its  truth,  the  historian's  feeling  was  elevated  and  intrepid. 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


69 


ted."  We  cannot  imagine  that  these  great  men  were  in  the 
least  insensible  to  the  applause  they  denied  themselves ;  they 
were  not  of  tempers  to  be  turned  aside;  and  it  was  the 
highest  motive  which  can  inspire  an  historian,  a  stern  devo- 
tion to  truth,  which  reduced  them  to  silence,  but  not  to  inac- 
tivity! These  Florentine  and  Venetian  historians,  ardent 
with  truth,  and  profound  in  political  sagacity,  were  writing 
these  legacies  of  history  solely  for  their  countrymen,  hopeless 
of  their  gratitude !  If  a  Frenchman  wrote  the  English  his- 
tory, that  labour  was  the  aliment  of  his  own  glory ;  if  Hume 
and  Robertson  devoted  their  pens  to  history,  the  motive  of 
the  task  was  less  glorious  than  their  work ;  but  here  we  dis- 
cover a  race  of  historians,  whose  patriotism  alone  instigated 
their  secret  labour,  and  who  substituted  for  fame  and  fortune 
that  mightier  spirit,  which,  amidst  their  conflicting  passions, 
has  developed  the  truest  principles,  and  even  the  errors,  of 
Political  Freedom ! 

None  of  these  historians,  we  have  seen,  published  their 
works  in  their  lifetime.  I  have  called  them  the  saints  of 
history,  rather  than  the  martyrs.  One,  however,  had  the 
intrepidity  to  risk  the  awful  responsibility,  and  he  stands 
forth  among  the  most  illustrious  and  ill-fated  examples  of 

HISTORICAL  MARTYRDOM! 

This  great  historian  is  Giannone,  whose  civil  history  of 
the  kingdom  of  Naples  is  remarkable  for  its  profound  in- 
quiries concerning  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  constitution, 
the  laws  and  customs  of  that  kingdom.  With  some  inter- 
ruptions from  his  professional  avocations  at  the  bar,  twenty 
years  were  consumed  in  writing  this  history.  Researches 
on  ecclesiastical  usurpations,  and  severe  strictures  on  the 
clergy,  are  the  chief  subjects  of  his  bold  and  unreserved  pen. 
These  passages,  curious,  grave,  and  indignant,  were  after- 
wards extracted  from  the  history  by  Vernet,  and  published 
in  a  small  volume,  under  the  title  of  "Anecdotes  Ecclesias- 
tiques,"  1738.  When  Giannone  consulted  with  a  friend  on 
the  propriety  of  publishing  his  history,  his  critic,  in  admiring 


70 


THE  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS. 


the  work,  predicted  the  fate  of  the  author.  "  You  have," 
said  he,  "  placed  on  your  head  a  crown  of  thorns,  and  of  very 
sharp  ones."  The  historian  set  at  nought  his  own  personal 
repose,  and  in  1723  this  elaborate  history  saw  the  light. 
From  that  moment  the  historian  never  enjoyed  a  day  of 
quiet !  Rome  attempted  at  first  to  extinguish  the  author 
with  his  work  ;  all  the  books  were  seized  on ;  and  copies  of 
the  first  edition  are  of  extreme  rarity.  To  escape  the  fangs 
of  inquisitorial  power,  the  historian  of  Naples  flew  from 
Naples  on  the  publication  of  his  immortal  work.  The  fugi- 
tive and  excommunicated  author  sought  an  asylum  at  Vienna, 
where,  though  he  found  no  friend  in  the  emperor,  Prince 
Eugene  and  other  nobles  became  his  patrons.  Forced  to 
quit  Vienna,  he  retired  to  Venice,  when  a  new  persecution 
arose  from  the  jealousy  of  the  state-inquisitors,  who  one 
night  landed  him  on  the  borders  of  the  pope's  dominions. 
Escaping  unexpectedly  with  his  life  to  Geneva,  he  was  pre- 
paring a  supplemental  volume  to  his  celebrated  history,  when, 
enticed  by  a  treacherous  friend  to  a  catholic  village,  Gian- 
none  was  arrested  by  an  order  of  the  king  of  Sardinia ;  his 
manuscripts  were  sent  to  Rome,  and  the  historian  imprisoned 
in  a  fort.  It  is  curious  that  the  imprisoned  Giannone  wrote 
a  vindication  of  the  rights  of  the  king  of  Sardinia,  against 
the  claims  of  the  court  of  Rome.  This  powerful  appeal  to 
the  feelings  of  this  sovereign  was  at  first  favourably  received ; 
but,  under  the  secret  influence  of  Rome,  the  Sardinian  mon- 
arch, on  the  extraordinary  plea  that  he  kept  Giannone  as  a 
prisoner  of  state  that  he  might  preserve  him  from  the  papal 
power,  ordered  that  the  vindicator  of  his  rights  should  be 
more  closely  confined  than  before  ;  and,  for  this  purpose, 
transferred  his  state-prisoner  to  the  citadel  of  Turin,  where, 
after  twelve  years  of  persecution  and  of  agitation,  our  great 
historian  closed  his  life ! 

Such  was  the  fate  of  this  historical  martyr,  whose  work 
the  catholic  Haym  describes  as  opera  scritta  con  molto  fuoco 
i  troppa  liberta.    He  hints  that  this  history  is  only  paralleled 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


71 


by  De  Thou's  great  work.  This  Italian  history  will  ever  be 
ranked  among  the  most  philosophical.  But,  profound  as  was 
the  masculine  genius  of  Giannone,  such  was  his  love  of  fame, 
that  he  wanted  the  intrepidity  requisite  to  deny  himself  the 
delight  of  giving  his  history  to  the  world,  though  some  of 
his  great  predecessors  had  set  him  a  noble  and  dignified 
example. 

One  more  observation  on  these  Italian  historians.  All  of 
them  represent  man  in  his  darkest  colours  ;  their  drama  is 
terrific ;  the  actors  are  monsters  of  perfidy,  of  inhumanity,  and 
inventors  of  crimes  which  seem  to  want  a  name  !  They  were 
all  "  princes  of  darkness  ;  "  and  the  age  seemed  to  afford  a 
triumph  of  Manicheism  !  The  worst  passions  were  called 
into  play  by  all  parties.  But  if  something  is  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  manners  of  the  times,  much  more  may  be  traced  to 
that  science  of  politics,  which  sought  for  mastery  in  an  unde- 
finable  struggle  of  ungovernable  political  power ;  in  the 
remorseless  ambition  of  the  despots,  and  the  hatreds  and 
jealousies  of  the  republics.  These  Italian  historians  have 
formed  a  perpetual  satire  on  the  contemptible  simulation  and 
dissimulation,  and  the  inexpiable  crimes  of  that  system  of 
politics,  which  has  derived  a  name  from  one  of  themselves — 
the  great,  may  we  add,  the  calumniated,  Machiavel  ? 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 

Our  ministers  and  court  favourites,  as  well  as  those  on  the 
Continent,  practised  a  very  impolitical  custom,  and  one  likely 
to  be  repeated,  although  it  has  never  failed  to  cast  a  popular 
odium  on  their  name,  exciting  even  the  envy  of  their  equals 
— in  the  erection  of  palaces  for  themselves,  which  outvied 
those  of  the  sovereign ;  and  which,  to  the  eyes  of  the  pop- 
ulace, appeared  as  a  perpetual  and  insolent  exhibition  of  what 
they  deemed  the  ill-earned  wages  of  peculation,  oppression, 


72 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


and  court-favour.  We  discover  the  seduction  of  this  passion 
for  ostentation,  this  haughty  sense  of  their  power,  and  this 
self-idolatry,  even  among  the  most  prudent  and  the  wisest  of 
our  ministers ;  and  not  one  but  lived  to  lament  over  this  vain 
act  of  imprudence.  To  these  ministers  the  noble  simplicity 
of  Pitt  will  ever  form  an  admirable  contrast ;  while  his 
personal  character,  as  a  statesman,  descends  to  posterity, 
unstained  by  calumny. 

The  houses  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  appear  to  have  exceeded 
the  palaces  of  the  sovereign  in  magnificence  ;  and  potent  as 
he  was  in  all  the  pride  of  pomp,  the  "  great  cardinal "  found 
rabid  envy  pursuing  him  so  close  at  his  heels,  that  he  relin- 
quished one  palace  after  the  other,  and  gave  up  as  gifts  to 
the  monarch,  what,  in  all  his  over-grown  greatness,  he  trem- 
bled to  retain  for  himself.  The  state  satire  of  that  day  was 
often  pointed  at  this  very  circumstance,  as  appears  in  Skel- 
ton's  "  Why  come  ye  not  to  Court  ?  "  and  Roy's  "  Rede  me, 
and  be  not  wrothe."  Skelton's  railing  rhymes  leave  their 
bitter  teeth  in  his  purple  pride ;  and  the  style  of  both  these 
satirists,  if  we  use  our  own  orthography,  shows  how  little  the 
language  of  the  common  people  has  varied  during  three 
centuries. 

"  Set  up  the  wretch  on  high 
In  a  throne  triumphantly; 
Make  him  a  great  state 
And  he  will  play  check-mate 

With  royal  majesty  

The  King's  Court 
Should  have  the  excellence, 
But  Hampton  Court 
Hath  the  pi-eeminence; 
And  York's  Place 
With  my  Lord's  grace, 
To  whose  magnificence 
Is  all  the  confluence, 
Suits,  and  supplications ; 
Embassies  of  all  nations." 


Roy,  in  contemplating  the  palace,  is  maliciously  reminded 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


73 


of  the  butcher's  lad,  and  only  gives  plain  sense  in  plain 
words. 

"  Hath  the  Cardinal  any  gay  mansion  ? 
Great  palaces  without  comparison, 

Most  glorious  of  outward  sight, 
And  within  decked  point-device,* 
More  like  unto  a  paradise 

Than  an  earthly  habitation. 
He  cometh  then  of  some  noble  stock  ? 
His  father  could  match  a  bullock, 

A  butcher  by  his  occupation," 

Whatever  we  may  now  think  of  the  structure,  and  the  low 
apartments  of  Wolsey's  palace,  it  is  described  not  only  in 
his  own  times,  but  much  later,  as  of  unparalleled  magnifi- 
cence ;  and  indeed  Cavendish's  narrative  of  the  Cardinal's 
entertainment  of  the  French  ambassadors,  gives  an  idea  of 
the  ministerial  prelate's  imperial  establishment  very  puzzling 
to  the  comprehension  of  a  modern  inspector.  Six  hundred 
persons,  I  think,  were  banquetted  and  slept  in  an  abode  which 
appears  to  us  so  mean,  but  which  Stowe  calls  "  so  stately  a 
palace."  To  avoid  the  odium  of  living  in  this  splendid  edi- 
fice, Wolsey  presented  it  to  the  king,  who,  in  recompense, 
suffered  the  Cardinal  occasionally  to  inhabit  this  wronder  of 
England,  in  the  character  of  keeper  of  the  king's  palace ;  f 
so  that  Wolsey  only  dared  to  live  in  his  own  palace  by  a 
subterfuge  !  This  perhaps  was  a  tribute  which  ministerial 
haughtiness  paid  to  popular  feeling,  or  to  the  jealousy  of  a 
royal  master. 

*  Point-device,  a  term  explained  by  Mr.  Douce.  He  thinks  that  it  is 
borrowed  from  the  labours  of  the  needle,  as  we  have  point-lace,  so  point- 
device,  i.  e.  point,  a  stitch,  and  devise,  devised  or  invented;  applied  to 
describe  any  thing  uncommonly  exact,  or  woi*ked  with  the  nicety  and  pre- 
cision of  stitches  made  or  devised  by  the  needle. — Illustrations  of  Shakspeare, 
i.  93.  But  Mr.  Gifford  has  since  observed  that  the  origin  of  the  expres- 
sion is,  perhaps,  yet  to  be  sought  for;  he  derives  it  from  a  mathematical 
phrase,  a  point  devise,  or  a  given  point,  and  hence  exact,  correct,  &c.  Ben 
Jonson,  vol.  iv.  170.  See,  for  various  examples,  Mr.  Nares's  Glossary,  art. 
Point-devise. 

t  Lyson's  Environs,  v.  58. 


74 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


I  have  elsewhere  shown  the  extraordinary  elegance  and 
prodigality  of  expenditure  of  Buckingham's  residences  ;  they 
were  such  as  to  have  extorted  the  wonder  even  of  Bassom- 
pierre,  and  unquestionably  excited  the  indignation  of  those 
who  lived  in  a  poor  court,  while  our  gay  and  thoughtless 
minister  alone  could  indulge  in  the  wanton  profusion. 

But  Wolsey  and  Buckingham  were  ambitious  and  adven- 
turous ;  they  rose  and  shone  the  comets  of  the  political 
horizon  of  Europe.  The  Roman  tiara  still  haunted  the 
imagination  of  the  Cardinal :  and  the  egotistic  pride  of  hav- 
ing out-rivalled  Richelieu  and  Olivarez,  the  nominal  minis- 
ters but  the  real  sovereigns  of  Europe,  kindled  the  buoyant 
spirits  of  the  gay,  the  gallant,  and  the  splendid  Villiers.  But 
what  "  folly  of  the  wise  "  must  account  for  the  conduct  of  the 
profound  Clarendon,  and  the  sensible  Sir  Robert  Walpole, 
who,  like  the  other  two  ministers,  equally  became  the  vic- 
tims of  this  imprudent  passion  for  the  ostentatious  pomp  of  a 
palace.  This  magnificence  looked  like  the  vaunt  of  insolence 
in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and  covered  the  ministers  with  a 
popular  odium. 

Clarendon-House  is  now  only  to  be  viewed  in  a  print ;  but 
its  story  remains  to  be  told.  It  was  built  on  the  site  of  Graf- 
ton-street;  and  when  afterwards  purchased  by  Monk,  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle,  he  left  his  title  to  that  well-known  street. 
It  was  an  edifice  of  considerable  extent  and  grandeur.  Clar- 
endon reproaches  himself  in  his  life  for  "  his  weakness  and 
vanity  "  in  the  vast  expense  incurred  in  this  building,  which 
he  acknowledges  had  "  more  contributed  to  that  gust  of  envy 
that  had  so  violently  shaken  him,  than  any  misdemeanour  that 
he  was  thought  to  have  been  guilty  of."  It  ruined  his  estate ; 
but  he  had  been  encouraged  to  it  by  the  royal  grant  of  the 
land,  by  that  passion  for  building  to  which  he  owns  "  he  was 
naturally  too  much  inclined,"  and  perhaps  by  other  circum- 
stances, among  which  was  the  opportunity  of  purchasing  the 
stones  which  had  been  designed  for  the  rebuilding  of  St. 
Paul's  ;  but  the  envy  it  drew  on  him,  and  the  excess  of  the 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


75 


architect's  proposed  expense,  had  made  his  life  "  very  uneasy, 
and  near  insupportable."  The  truth  is,  that  when  this  palace 
was  finished,  it  was  imputed  to  him  as  a  state-crime  ;  all  the 
evils  in  the  nation,  which  were  then  numerous,  pestilence, 
conflagration,  war,  and  defeats,  were  discovered  to  be  in  some 
way  connected  with  Clarendon-House,  or,  as  it  was  popularly 
called,  either  Dunkirk-House,  or  Tangier-Hall,  from  a  notion 
that  it  had  been  erected  with  the  golden  bribery  which  the 
chancellor  had  received  for  the  sale  of  Dunkirk  and  Tangiers. 
He  was  reproached  with  having  profaned  the  sacred  stones 
dedicated  to  the  use  of  the  church.  The  great  but  unfortu- 
nate master  of  this  palace,  who,  from  a  private  lawyer,  had 
raised  himself  by  alliance  even  to  royalty,  the  father-in-law 
of  the  Duke  of  York,  it  was  maliciously  suggested,  had  per- 
suaded Charles  the  Second  to  marry  the  Infanta  of  Portugal, 
knowing  (but  how  Clarendon  obtained  the  knowledge  his 
enemies  have  not  revealed)  that  the  Portuguese  Princess 
was  not  likely  to  raise  any  obstacle  to  the  inheritance  of  his 
own  daughter  to  the  throne.  At  the  Restoration,  among 
other  enemies,  Clarendon  found  that  the  royalists  were  none 
of  the  least  active  ;  he  was  reproached  by  them  for  preferring 
those  who  had  been  the  cause  of  their  late  troubles.  The 
same  reproach  was  incurred  on  the  restoration  of  the  Bour- 
bons. It  is  perhaps  more  political  to  maintain  active  men, 
who  have  obtained  power,  than  to  reinstate  inferior  talents, 
who  at  least  have  not  their  popularity.  This  is  one  of  the 
parallel  cases  which  so  frequently  strike  us  in  exploring  po- 
litical history ;  and  the  ultras  of  Louis  the  Eighteenth  were 
only  the  royalists  of  Charles  the  Second.  There  was  a  strong 
popular  delusion  carried  on  by  the  wits  and  the  Misses,  who 
formed  the  court  of  Charles  the  Second,  that  the  government 
was  as  much  shared  by  the  Hydes  as  the  Stuarts.  We  have 
in  the  state-poems,  an  unsparing  lampoon,  entitled,  "  Claren- 
don's House-warming ; "  but  a  satire  yielding  nothing  to  it  in 
severity  I  have  discovered  in  manuscript ;  and  it  is  also 
remarkable  for  turning  chiefly  on  a  pun  of  the  family  name 


76 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


of  the  Earl  of  Clarendon.  The  witty  and  malicious  rhymer, 
after  making  Charles  the  Second  demand  the  Great  Seal,  and 
resolve  to  be  his  own  chancellor,  proceeds,  reflecting  on  the 
great  political  victim. 

"  Lo !  his  whole  ambition  already  divides 
The  sceptre  between  the  Stuarts  and  the  Hydes. 
Behold  in  the  depth  of  our  plague  and  wars, 
He  built  him  a  palace  out-braves  the  stars; 
Which  house  (we  Dunkirk,  he  Clarendon,  names) 
Looks  down  with  shame  upon  St.  James ; 
But  'tis  not  his  golden  globe  that  will  save  him, 
Being  less  than  the  custom-house  farmers  gave  him; 
His  chapel  for  consecration  calls, 
Whose  sacrilege  plundered  the  stones  from  Paul's. 
When  Queen  Dido  landed  she  bought  as  much  ground 
As  the  Hyde  of  a  lusty  fat  bull  would  surround; 
But  when  the  said  Hyde  was  cut  into  thongs, 
A  city  and  kingdom  to  Hyde  belongs; 
So  here  in  court,  church,  and  country,  far  and  wide, 
Here's  nought  to  be  seen  but  Hyde!  Hyde !  Hyde! 
Of  old,  and  where  law  the  kingdom  divides, 
'Twas  our  Hydes  of  land,  'tis  now  land  of  Hydes !  " 

Clarendon-House  was  a  palace,  which  had  been  raised  with 
at  least  as  much  fondness  as  pride ;  and  Evelyn  tells  us,  that 
the  garden  was  planned  by  himself  and  his  lordship ;  but  the 
cost,  as  usual,  trebled  the  calculation,  and  the  noble  master 
grieved  in  silence  amidst  this  splendid  pile  of  architecture.* 
Even  when  in  his  exile  the  sale  was  proposed  to  pay  his 
debts,  and  secure  some  provision  for  his  younger  children,  he 
honestly  tells  us,  that  "  he  remained  so  infatuated  with  the 
delight  he  had  enjoyed,  that  though  he  was  deprived  of  it,  he 
hearkened  very  unwillingly  to  the  advice."  In  1683,  Clar- 
endon-House met  its  fate,  and  was  abandoned  to  the  brokers, 
who  had  purchased  it  for  its  materials.  An  affecting  circum- 
stance is  recorded  by  Evelyn  on  this  occasion.  In  returning 
to  town  with  the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  the  son  of  the  great 

*  At  the  gateway  of  the  Three  Kings  Inn,  near  Dover-street  in  Picca- 
dilly, are  two  pilasters  with  Corinthian  capitals,  which  belonged  to  Cla- 
rendon-House, and  are  perhaps  the  only  remains  of  that  edifice. 


OF  PALACES  BUILT  BY  MINISTERS. 


77 


earl,  "  in  passing  by  the  glorious  palace  his  father  built  but 
few  years  before,  which  they  were  now  demolishing,  being 
sold  to  certain  undertakers,  I  turned  my  head  the  contrary 
way  till  the  coach  was. gone  past  by,  lest  I  might  minister 
occasion  of  speaking  of  it,  which  must  needs  have  grieved 
him,  that  in  so  short  a  time  this  pomp  was  fallen."  A  feeling 
of  infinite  delicacy,  so  perfectly  characteristic  of  Evelyn ! 

And  now  to  bring  down  this  subject  to  times  still  nearer. 
We  find  that  Sir  Robert  Walpole  had  placed  himself  ex- 
actly in  the  situation  of  the  great  minister  we  have  noticed ; 
we  have  his  confession  to  his  brother  Lord  Walpole,  and  to 
his  friend  Sir  John  Hynde  Cotton.  The  historian  of  this 
minister  observes,  that  his  magnificent  building  at  Houghton 
drew  on  him  great  obloquy.  On  seeing  his  brother's  house 
at  Wolterton,  Sir  Robert  expressed  his  wishes  that  he  had 
contented  himself  with  a  similar  structure.  In  the  reign  of 
Anne,  Sir  Robert,  sitting  by  Sir  John  Hynde  Cotton,  alluding 
to  a  sumptuous  house  which  was  then  building  by  Harley, 
observed,  that  to  construct  a  great  house  was  a  high  act  of 
imprudence  in  any  minister  !  It  was  a  long  time  after, 
when  he  had  become  prime  minister,  that  he  forgot  the  whole 
result  of  the  present  article,  and  pulled  down  his  family 
mansion  at  Houghton  to  build  its  magnificent  edifice ;  it  was 
then  Sir  John  Hynde  Cotton  reminded  him  of  the  reflection 
which  he  had  made  some  years  ago :  the  reply  of  Sir  Robert 
is  remarkable — "  Your  recollection  is  too  late ;  I  wish  you 
had  reminded  me  of  it  before  I  began  building,  for  then  it 
might  have  been  of  service  to  me  ! " 

The  statesman  and  politician  then  are  susceptible  of  all 
the  seduction  of  ostentation  and  the  pride  of  pomp !  Who 
would  have  credited  it  ?  But  bewildered  with  power,  in  the 
magnificence  and  magnitude  of  the  edifices  which  their 
colossal  greatness  inhabits,  they  seem  to  contemplate  on  its 
image ! 

Sir  Francis  Walsingham  died  and  left  nothing  to  pay  his 
debts,  as  appears  by  a  curious  fact  noticed  in  the  anonymous 


78 


"  TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY!  " 


life  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  prefixed  to  the  Arcadia,  and 
evidently  written  by  one  acquainted  with  the  family  history 
of  his  friend  and  hero.  The  chivalric  Sidney,  though  sought 
after  by  court  beauties,  solicited  the  hand  of  the  daughter  of 
Walsingham,  although,  as  it  appears,  she  could  have  had  no 
other  portion  than  her  own  virtues  and  her  father's  name. 
"  And  herein,"  observes  our  anonymous  biographer,  "  he  was 
exemplary  to  all  gentlemen  not  to  carry  their  love  in  their 
purses."  On  this  he  notices  this  secret  history  of  Walsing- 
ham : 

"  This  is  that  Sir  Francis  who  impoverished  himself  to 
enrich  the  state,  and  indeed  made  England  his  heir ;  and  was 
so  far  from  building  up  of  fortune  by  the  benefit  of  his  place, 
that  he  demolished  that  fine  estate  left  him  by  his  ancestors 
to  purchase  dear  intelligence  from  all  parts  of  Christendom. 
He  had  a  key  to  unlock  the  pope's  cabinet ;  and,  as  if  master 
of  some  invisible  whispering-place,  all  the  secrets  of  Christian 
princes  met  at  his  closet.  Wonder  not  then  if  he  bequeathed 
no  great  wealth  to  his  daughter,  being  privately  interred  in 
the  quire  of  Paul's,  as  much  indebted  to  his  creditors,  though 
not  so  much  as  our  nation  is  indebted  to  his  memory." 

Some  curious  inquirer  may  afford  us  a  catalogue  of  great 
ministers  of  state  who  have  voluntarily  declined  the  augmen- 
tation of  their  private  fortune,  while  they  devoted  their  days 
to  the  noble  pursuits  of  patriotic  glory  !  The  labour  of  this 
research  will  be  great,  and  the  volume  small ! 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY ! 9 

Such  was  the  title  of  a  famous  political  tract,  which  was 
issued  at  a  moment  when  a  people,  in  a  state  of  insurrection, 
put  forth  a  declaration  that  taxation  was  tyranny !  It  was 
not  against  an  insignificant  tax  they  protested,  but  against 
taxation  itself!  and  in  the  temper  of  the  moment  this  abstract 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY !  " 


79 


proposition  appeared  an  insolent  paradox.  It  was  instantly 
run  down  by  that  everlasting  party  which,  so  far  back  as  in 
the  laws  of  our  Henry  the  First,  are  designated  by  the  odd 
descriptive  term  of  acephali,  a  people  without  heads!*  the 
strange  equality  of  levellers  ! 

These  political  monsters  in  all  times  have  had  an  associa- 
tion of  ideas  of  taxation  and  tyranny,  and  with  them  one 
name  instantly  suggests  the  other !  This  happened  to  one 
Gigli  of  Sienna,  who  published  the  first  part  of  a  dictionary 
of  the  Tuscan  language,f  of  which  only  312  leaves  amused 
the  Florentines ;  these  having  had  the  honour  of  being  con- 
signed to  the  flames  by  the  hands  of  the  hangman  for  certain 
popular  errors ;  such  as,  for  instance,  under  the  word  Gran 
Dnca  we  find  Vedi  Gabelli  I  (see  Taxes  !)  and  the  word 
Gabella  was  explained  by  a  reference  to  Gran  Duca ! 
Grand-duke  and  taxes  were  synonymes,  according  to  this 
mordacious  lexicographer  !  Such  grievances,  and  the  modes 
of  expressing  them,  are  equally  ancient.  A  Roman  consul, 
by  levying  a  tax  on  salt  during  the  Punic  war,  was  nick- 
named Salinator,  and  condemned  by  "  the  majesty "  of  the 
people !  He  had  formerly  done  his  duty  to  the  country,  but 
the  salter  was  now  his  reward  !    He  retired  from  Rome,  let 

*  Cowel' s  Interpreter,  art.  Acephali.  This  by-name  we  unexpectedly 
find  in  a  grave  antiquarian  law-dictionary!  probably  derived  from  Pliny's 
description  of  a  people  whom  some  travellers  had  reported  to  have  found 
in  this  predicament,  in  their  fright  and  haste  in  attempting  to  land  on  a 
hostile  shore  among  savages.  To  account  for  this  fabulous  people,  it  has 
been  conjectured  they  wore  such  high  coverings,  that  their  heads  did  not 
appear  above  their  shoulders,  while  their  eyes  seemed  to  be  placed  in  their 
breasts.  How  this  name  came  to  be  introduced  into  the  laws  of  Henry  the 
First  remains  to  be  told  by  some  profound  antiquary;  but  the  allusion  was 
common  in  the  middle  ages.  Cowel  says,  "  Those  are  called  acephali  who 
were  the  levellers  of  that  age,  and  acknowledged  no  head  or  superior. 

t  Vocabulario  di  Santa  Caterina  e  della  Lingua  Sanese,  1717.  This  pun- 
gent lexicon  was  prohibited  at  Rome  by  desire  of  the  court  of  Florence. 
The  history  of  this  suppressed  work  may  be  found  in  11  Giornale  de*  Let- 
ierati  d1  Italia,  tomo  xxix.  1410.  In  the  last  edition  of  Haym's  "  Biblioteca 
Italiana,"  1803,  it  is  said  to  be  reprinted  at  Manilla,  nelV  hole  Fillippine! — 
For  the  book-licensers  it  is  a  great  way  to  go  for  it! 


80 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY!" 


his  beard  grow,  and  by  his  sordid  dress  and  melancholy  air 
evinced  his  acute  sensibility.  The  Romans  at  length  wanted 
the  Salter  to  command  the  army — as  an  injured  man,  he  re- 
fused— but  he  was  told  that  he  should  bear  the  caprice  of  the 
Roman  people  with  the  tenderness  of  a  son  for  the  humours 
of  a  parent !  He  had  lost  his  reputation  by  a  productive  tax 
on  salt,  though  this  tax  had  provided  an  army  and  obtained 
a  victory ! 

Certain  it  is  that  Gigli  and  his  numerous  adherents  are 
wrong :  for  were  they  freed  from  all  restraints  as  much  as  if 
they  slept  in  forests  and  not  in  houses  ;  were  they  inhabitants 
of  wilds  and  not  of  cities,  so  that  every  man  should  be  his 
own  law-giver,  with  a  perpetual  immunity  from  all  taxation, 
we  could  not  necessarily  infer  their  political  happiness. 
There  are  nations  where  taxation  is  hardly  known,  for  the 
people  exist  in  such  utter  wretchedness,  that  they  are  too  poor 
to  be  taxed ;  of  which  the  Chinese,  among  others,  exhibit 
remarkable  instances.  When  Nero  would  have  abolished  all 
taxes,  in  his  excessive  passion  for  popularity,  the  senate 
thanked  him  for  his  good  will  to  the  people,  but  assured  him 
that  this  was  a  certain  means  not  of  repairing,  but  of  ruining 
the  commonwealth.  Bodin,  in  his  curious  work  "  the  Repub- 
lic," has  noticed  a  class  of  politicians  who  are  in  too  great 
favour  with  the  people.  "  Many  seditious  citizens,  and  de- 
sirous of  innovations,  did  of  late  years  promise  immunity  of 
taxes  and  subsidies  to  our  people ;  but  neither  could  they  do 
it,  or  if  they  could  have  done  it,  they  would  not ;  or  if  it 
were  done,  should  we  have  any  common-weal,  being  the 
ground  and  foundation  of  one."  * 

The  undisguised  and  naked  term  of  "  taxation "  is,  how- 
ever, so  odious  to  the  people,  that  it  may  be  curious  to  observe 

*  Bodin's  six  Books  of  a  Commonwealth,  translated  by  Richard  Knolles, 
1606.  A  work  replete  with  the  practical  knowledge  of  politics ;  and  of 
which  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart  has  delivered  a  high  opinion.  Yet  this  great 
politician  wrote  a  volume  to  anathematize  those  who  doubted  the  existence 
of  sorcerers  and  witches,  &c.  whom  he  condemns  to  the  flames !  See  his 
"  Demonomanie  des  Sorciers,"  1593. 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY!" 


81 


the  arts  practised  by  governments,  and  even  by  the  people 
themselves,  to  veil  it  under  some  mitigating  term.  In  the  first 
breaking  out  of  the  American  troubles,  they  probably  would 
have  yielded  to  the  mother-country  the  right  of  taxation, 
modified  by  the  term  regulation  (of  their  trade)  ;  this  I  infer 
from  a  letter  of  Dr.  Robertson,  who  observes,  that  "  the  dis- 
tinction between  taxation  and  regulation  is  mere  folly ! " 
Even  despotic  governments  have  condescended  to  disguise 
the  contributions  forcibly  levied,  by  some  appellative  which 
should  partly  conceal  its  real  nature.  Terms  have  often  in- 
fluenced circumstances,  as  names  do  things  ;  and  conquest  or 
oppression,  which  we  may  allow  to  be  sytionymes,  apes  be- 
nevolence whenever  it  claims  as  a  gift  what  it  exacts  as  a 
tribute. 

A  sort  of  philosophical  history  of  taxation  appears  in  the 
narrative  of  Wood,  in  his  Inquiry  on  Homer.  He  tells  us 
that  "  the  presents  (a  term  of  extensive  signification  in  the 
East)  which  are  distributed  annually  by  the  bashaw  of  Da- 
mascus to  the  several  Arab  princes  through  whose  territory 
he  conducts  the  caravan  of  pilgrims  to  Mecca,  are,  at  Con- 
stantinople, called  a  free  gift,  and  considered  as  an  act  of  the 
sultan's  generosity  towards  his  indigent  subjects ;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Arab  sheikhs  deny  even  a  right  of  pas- 
sage through  the  districts  of  their  command,  and  exact  those 
sums  as  a  tax  due  for  the  permission  of  going  through  their 
country.  In  the  frequent  bloody  contests  which  the  adjust- 
ment of  these  fees  produce,  the  Turks  complain  of  robbery, 
and  the  Arabs  of  invasion."  * 

Here  we  trace  taxation  through  all  its  shifting  forms,  ac- 
commodating itself  to  the  feelings  of  the  different  people; 
the  same  principle  regulated  the  alternate  terms  proposed  by 
the  buccaneers,  when  they  ashed  what  the  weaker  party  was 
sure  to  give,  or  when  they  levied  what  the  others  paid  only  as 
a  common  toll. 


*  Wood's  Inquiry  on  Homer,  p.  153. 

VOL.  IV.  6 


82 


TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY!  " 


When  Louis  the  Eleventh  of  France  beheld  his  country- 
exhausted  bj  the  predatory  wars  of  England,  he  bought  a 
peace  of  our  Edward  the  Fourth  by  an  annual  sum  of  fifty 
thousand  crowns,  to  be  paid  at  London,  and  likewise  granted 
pensions  to  the  English  ministers.  Holingshed  and  all  our 
historians  call  this  a  yearly  tribute  ;  but  Comines,  the  French 
memoir-writer,  with  a  national  spirit,  denies  that  these  gifts 
were  either  pensions  or  tributes.  "  Yet,"  says  Bodin,  a 
Frenchman  also,  but  affecting  a  more  philosophical  indiffer- 
ence, "  it  must  be  either  the  one  or  the  other ;  though  I  confess, 
that  those  who  receive  a  pension  to  obtain  peace,  commonly 
boast  of  it  as  if  it  were  a  tribute  !  "  *  Such  are  the  shades 
of  our  feelings  in  this  history  of  taxation  and  tribute.  But 
there  is  another  artifice  of  applying  soft  names  to  hard  things, 
by  veiling  a  tyrannical  act  by  a  term  which  presents  no  dis- 
agreeable idea  to  the  imagination.  When  it  was  formerly 
thought  desirable,  in  the  relaxation  of  morals  which  pre- 
vailed in  Venice,  to  institute  the  office  of  censor,  three  magis- 
trates were  elected  bearing  this  title ;  but  it  seemed  so  harsh 
and  austere  in  that  dissipated  city,  that  these  reformers  of 
manners  were  compelled  to  change  their  title ;  when  they 
were  no  longer  called  censors,  but  I signori  sopra  il  bon  vi- 
vere  della  citta,  all  agreed  on  the  propriety  of  the  office  under 
the  softened  term.  Father  Joseph,  the  secret  agent  of  Car- 
dinal Richelieu,  was  the  inventor  of  lettres  de  cachet,  disguis- 
ing that  instrument  of  despotism  by  the  amusing  term  of  a 
sealed  letter.  Expatriation  would  have  been  merciful  com- 
pared with  the  result  of  that  billet-doux,  a  sealed  letter  from 
his  majesty  ! 

Burke  reflects  with  profound  truth — "Abstract  liberty,  like 
other  mere  abstractions,  is  not  to  be  found.  Liberty  inheres  in 
some  sensible  object ;  and  every  nation  has  formed  to  itself 
some  favourite  point,  which,  by  way  of  eminence,  becomes 
the  criterion  of  their  happiness.    It  happened  that  the  great 


*  Bodin' s  Common-weal,  translated  by  R.  Knolles,  p.  14S.  1C06. 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY !  " 


83 


contests  for  freedom  in  this  country  were  from  the  earliest 
times  chiefly  upon  the  question  of  taxing.  Most  of  the  con- 
tests in  the  ancient  commonwealths  turned  primarily  on  the 
right  of  election  of  magistrates,  or  on  the  balance  among  (lie 
several  orders  of  the  state.  The  question  of  money  was  not 
with  them  so  immediate.  But  in  England  it  was  otherwise. 
On  this  point  of  taxes  the  ablest  pens  and  most  eloquent 
tongues  have  been  exercised ;  the  greatest  spirits  have  acted 
and  suffered."  * 

One  party  clamorously  asserts  that  taxation  is  their  griev- 
ance, while  another  demonstrates  that  the  annihilation  of 
taxes  would  be  their  ruin  !  The  interests  of  a  great  nation, 
among  themselves,  are  often  contrary  to  each  other,  and  each 
seems  alternately  to  predominate  and  to  decline.  "  The 
sting  of  taxation,"  observes  Mr.  Hallam,  "  is  wastefulness  ; 
but  it  is  difficult  to  name  a  limit  beyond  which  taxes  will  not 
be  borne  without  impatience  when  faithfully  applied."  In 
plainer  words,  this  only  signifies,  we  presume,  that  Mr.  Hal- 
lam's  party  would  tax  us  without  "  wastefulness  !  "  Minis- 
terial or  opposition,  whatever  be  the  administration,  it  follows 
that  "  taxation  is  no  tyranny  ;  "  Dr.  Johnson  then  was  terribly 
abused  in  his  day  for  a  vox  et  prceterea  nihil! 

Still  shall  the  innocent  word  be  hateful,  and  the  people 
will  turn  even  on  their  best  friend,  who  in  administration 
inflicts  a  new  impost ;  as  we  have  shown  by  the  fate  of  the 
Roman  Salinator !  Among  ourselves,  our  government,  in  its 
constitution,  if  not  always  in  its  practice,  long  had  a  considera- 
tion towards  the  feelings  of  the  people,  and  often  contrived 
to  hide  the  nature  of  its  exactions  by  a  name  of  blandish- 
ment. An  enormous  grievance  was  long  the  office  of  pur- 
vej^ance.  A  purveyor  was  an  officer  who  was  to  furnish 
every  sort  of  provision  for  the  royal  house,  and  sometimes 
for  great  lords,  during  their  progresses  or  journeys.  His 
oppressive  office,  by  arbitrarily  fixing  the  market-prices,  and 
compelling  the  countrymen  to  bring  their  articles  to  market, 

*  Burke's  Works,  vol.  i.  288. 


84 


TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY!  " 


would  enter  into  the  history  of  the  arts  of  grinding  the  labor- 
ing class  of  society ;  a  remnant  of  feudal  tyranny  !  The  very 
title  of  this  officer  became  odious  ;  and  by  a  statute  of  Ed- 
ward III.  the  hateful  name  of  'purveyor  was  ordered  to  be 
changed  into  acheteur  or  buyer !  A  change  of  name,  it  was 
imagined,  would  conceal  its  nature !  The  term  often  devised, 
strangely  contrasted  with  the  thing  itself.  Levies  of  money 
were  long  raised  under  the  pathetic  appeal  of  benevolences. 
When  Edward  IV.  was  passing  over  to  France,  he  obtained, 
under  this  gentle  demand,  money  towards  "  the  great  jour- 
ney," and  afterwards  having  "  rode  about  the  more  part  of 
the  lands,  and  used  the  people  in  such  fair  manner,  that  they 
were  liberal  in  their  gifts, "  old  Fabian  adds,  "  the  which 
way  of  the  levying  of  this  money  was  after-named  a  benevo- 
lence." Edward  IV.  was  courteous  in  this  newly  invented 
style,  and  was  besides  the  handsomest  tax-gatherer  in  his 
kingdom  !  His  royal  presence  was  very  dangerous  to  the 
purses  of  his  loyal  subjects,  particularly  to  those  of  the 
females.  In  his  progress,  having  kissed  a  widow  for  having 
contributed  a  larger  sum  than  was  expected  from  her  estate, 
she  was  so  overjoyed  at  the  singular  honour  and  delight,  that 
she  doubled  her  benevolence,  and  a  second  kiss  had  ruined 
her !  In  the  succeeding  reign  of  Richard  III.  the  term  had 
already  lost  the  freshness  of  its  innocence.  In  the  speech 
which  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  delivered  from  the  hustings 
in  Guildhall,  he  explained  the  term  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
auditors,  who  even  then  were  as  cross-humoured  as  the  livery 
of  this  day,  in  their  notions  of  what  now  we  gently  call  "  sup- 
plies." "  Under  the  plausible  name  of  benevolence,  as  it  was 
held  in  the  time  of  Edward  IV.,  your  goods  were  taken  from 
you  much  against  your  will,  as  if  by  that  name  was  under- 
stood that  every  man  should  pay,  not  what  he  pleased,  but 
what  the  king  would  have  him ; "  or,  as  a  marginal  note  in 
Buck's  Life  of  Richard  III.  more  pointedly  has  it,  that  "  the 
name  of  benevolence  signified  that  every  man  should  pay,  not 
what  he  of  his  own  good  will  list,  but  what  the  king  of  his 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY!  "  85 

good  will  list  to  take."  *  Richard  III.,  whose  business,  like 
that  of  all  usurpers,  was  to  be  popular,  in  a  statute  even  con- 
demns this  "  benevolence  "  as  "  a  new  imposition,"  and  enacts 
that  "  none  shall  be  charged  with  it  in  future  ;  many  families 
having  been  ruined  under  these  pretended  gifts."  His  suc- 
cessor, however,  found  means  to  levy  "  a  benevolence  ;  "  but 
when  Henry  VIII.  demanded  one,  the  citizens  of  London 
appealed  to  the  act  of  Richard  III.  Cardinal  Wolsey  in- 
sisted that  the  law  of  a  murderous  usurper  should  not  be 
enforced.  One  of  the  common-council  courageously  replied, 
that  "  King  Richard,  conjointly  with  parliament,  had  enacted 
many  good  statutes."  Even  then  the  citizen  seems  to  have 
comprehended  the  spirit  of  our  constitution — that  taxes  should 
not  be  raised  without  consent  of  parliament ! 

Charles  the  First,  amidst  his  urgent  wants,  at  first  had 
hoped,  by  the  pathetic  appeal  to  benevolences,  that  he  should 
have  touched  the  hearts  of  his  unfriendly  commoners ;  but 
the  term  of  benevolence  proved  unlucky.  The  resisters  of 
taxation  took  full  advantage  of  a  significant  meaning,  which 
had  long  been  lost  in  the  custom :  asserting  by  this  very 
term,  that  all  levies  of  money  were  not  compulsory,  but  the 
voluntary  gifts  of  the  people.  In  that  political  crisis,  when 
in  the  fulness  of  time  all  the  national  grievances  which  had 
hitherto  been  kept  down,  started  up  with  one  voice,  the  cour- 
teous term  strangely  contrasted  with  the  rough  demand. 
Lord  Digby  said  "  the  granting  of  subsidies,  under  so  pre- 
posterous a  name  as  of  a  benevolence,  was  a  malevolence." 
And  Mr.  Grimstone  observed,  that  "  They  have  granted  a 
benevolence,  but  the  nature  of  the  thing  agrees  not  with  the 
namer  The  nature  indeed  had  so  entirely  changed  from 
the  name,  that  when  James  I.  had  tried  to  warm  the  hearts 

*  Daines  Barrington,  in  "  Observations  on  the  Statutes,"  gives  the 
marginal  note  of  Buck  as  the  xoords  of  the  duke ;  they  certainly  served  his 
purpose  to  amuse,  better  than  the  veracious  ones ;  but  we  expect  from  a 
grave  antiquary  inviolable  authenticity.  The  duke  is  made  by  Barrington 
a  sort  of  wit,  but  the  pithy  quaintness  is  Buck's. 


86 


"TAXATION  NO  TYRANNY! ' 


of  his  "  benevolent "  people,  he  got  little  money,  and  lost  a 
great  deal  of  love."  "  Subsidies,"  that  is,  grants  made  by- 
parliament,  observes  Arthur  Wilson,  a  dispassionate  his- 
torian, "  get  more  of  the  people's  money,  but  exactions  en- 
slave the  mind." 

When  benevolences  had  become  a  grievance,  to  diminish 
the  odium  they  invented  more  inviting  phrases.  The  sub- 
ject was  cautiously  informed  that  the  sums  demanded  were 
only  loans  ;  or  he  was  honoured  by  a  letter  under  the  Privy 
Seal ;  a  bond  which  the  king  engaged  to  repay  at  a  definite 
period ;  but  privy  seals  at  length  got  to  be  hawked  about  to 
persons  coming  out  of  church.  "  Privy  seals,"  says  a  manu- 
script letter,  "  are  flying  thick  and  threefold  in  sight  of  all 
the  world,  which  might  surely  have  been  better  performed  in 
delivering  them  to  every  man  privately  at  home."  The  gen- 
eral loan,  which  in  fact  was  a  forced  loan,  was  one  of  the  most 
crying  grievances  under  Charles  I.  Ingenious  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  own  popularity,  the  king  contrived  a  new  mode 
of  "  secret  instructions  to  commissioners"  *  They  were  to 
find  out  persons  who  could  bear  the  largest  rates.  How  the 
commissioners  were  to  acquire  this  secret  and  inquisitorial 
knowledge  appears  in  the  bungling  contrivance.  It  is  one  of 
their  orders  that  after  a  number  of  inquiries  have  been  put 
to  a  person,  concerning  others  who  had  spoken  against  loan- 
money,  and  what  arguments  they  had  used,  this  person  was 
to  be  charged  in  his  majesty's  name,  and  upon  his  allegiance, 
not  to  disclose  to  any  other  the  answer  he  had  given.  A 
striking  instance  of  that  fatuity  of  the  human  mind,  when  a 
weak  government  is  trying  to  do  what  it  knows  not  how  to 
perform:  it  was  seeking  to  obtain  a  secret  purpose  by  the 
most  open  and  general  means  :  a  self-destroying  principle ! 

Our  ancestors  were  children  in  finance ;  their  simplicity 
has  been  too  often  described  as  tyranny !  but  from  my  soul 
do  I  believe,  on  this  obscure  subject  of  taxation,  that  old 

*  These  "  Private  Instructions  to  the  Commissioners  for  the  General 
Loan  "  may  be  found  in  Rush  worth,  i.  418. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH.  37 

Burleigh's  advice  to  Elizabeth  includes  more  than  all  the 
squabbling  pamphlets  of  our  political  economists, — "  Win 

HEARTS,  AND  YOU  HAVE  THEIR  HANDS  AND  PURSES  !  " 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 

Montaigne  was  fond  of  reading  minute  accounts  of  the 
deaths  of  remarkable  persons  ;  and,  in  the  simplicity  of  his 
heart,  old  Montaigne  wished  to  be  learned  enough  to  form  a 
collection  of  these  deaths,  to  observe  "their  word-,  their 
actions,  and  what  sort  of  countenance  they  put  upon  it."  He 
seems  to  have  been  a  little  over  curious  about  deaths,  in  ref- 
erence, no  doubt,  to  his  own,  in  which  he  was  certainly 
deceived  ;  for  we  are  told  that  he  did  not  die  as  he  had  prom- 
ised himself, — expiring  in  the  adoration  of  the  mass  ;  or,  as 
his  preceptor  Buchanan  would  have  called  it,  in  "  the  act  of 
rank  idolatry." 

I  have  been  told  of  a  privately  printed  volume,  under  the 
singular  title  of "  The  Book  of  Death,"  where  an  amateur 
has  compiled  the  pious  memorials  of  many  of  our  eminent 
men  in  their  last  moments  :  and  it  may  form  a  companion- 
piece  to  the  little  volume  on  "  Les  grands  hommes  qui  sont 
morts  en  plaisantant."  This  work,  I  fear,  must  be  monot- 
onous ;  the  deaths  of  the  righteous  must  resemble  each 
other ;  the  learned  and  the  eloquent  can  only  receive  in 
silence  that  hope  which  awaits  "  the  covenant  of  the  grave." 
But  this  volume  will  not  establish  any  decisive  principle ; 
since  the  just  and  the  religious  have  not  always  encountered 
death  with  indifference,  nor  even  in  a  fit  composure  of  mind. 

The  functions  of  the  mind  are  connected  with  those  of  the 
body.  On  a  death-bed  a  fortnight's  disease  may  reduce  the 
firmest  to  a  most  wretched  state ;  while,  on  the  contrary,  the 
soul  struggles,  as  it  were  in  torture,  in  a  robust  frame.  Nani, 
the  Venetian  historian,  has  curiously  described  the  death  of 


88 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


Innocent  the  Tenth,  who  was  a  character  unblemished  by 
vices,  and  who  died  at  an  advanced  age,  with  too  robust  a 
constitution.  Dopo  lunga  e  terribile  ago?iia,  con  dolore  e  con 
pena,  seperandosi  Vanima  da  quel  corpo  robusto,  egli  spiro 
ai  sette  di  Genuaro,  nel  ottantesimo  primo  de  suoi  anno. 
"  After  a  long  and  terrible  agony,  with  great  bodily  pain  and 
difficulty,  his  soul  separated  itself  from  that  robust  frame, 
and  expired  in  his  eighty-first  year." 

Some  have  composed  sermons  on  death,  while  they  passed 
many  years  of  anxiety,  approaching  to  madness,  in  con- 
templating their  own.  The  certainty  of  an  immediate 
separation  from  all  our  human  sympathies  may,  even  on  a 
death-bed,  suddenly  disorder  the  imagination.  The  great 
physician  of  our  times  told  me  of  a  general,  who  had  often 
faced  the  cannon's  mouth,  dropping  down  in  terror,  when  in- 
formed by  him  that  his  disease  was  rapid  and  fatal.  Some 
have  died  of  the  strong  imagination  of  death.  There  is  a 
print  of  a  knight  brought  on  the  scaffold  to  suffer  ;  he  viewed 
the  headsman;  he  was  blinded,  and  knelt  down  to  receive 
the  stroke.  Having  passed  through  the  whole  ceremony  of 
a  criminal  execution,  accompanied  by  all  its  disgrace,  it  was 
ordered  that  his  life  should  be  spared.  Instead  of  the  stroke 
from  the  sword,  they  poured  cold  water  over  his  neck. 
After  this  operation  the  knight  remained  motionless ;  they 
discovered  that  he  had  expired  in  the  very  imagination  of 
death !  Such  are  among  the  many  causes  which  may  affect 
the  mind  in  the  hour  of  its  last  trial.  The  habitual  associa- 
tions of  the  natural  character  are  most  likely  to  prevail, 
though  not  always.  The  intrepid  Marshal  Biron  disgraced 
his  exit  by  womanish  tears  and  raging  imbecility ;  the  vir- 
tuous Erasmus,  with  miserable  groans,  was  heard  crying  out, 
Domine  !  Dominef  fac  finem!  fac  Jinemf  Bayle  having 
prepared  his  proof  for  the  printer,  pointed  to  where  it  lay, 
when  dying.  The  last  words  which  Lord  Chesterfield  was 
heard  to  speak  were,  when  the  valet,  opening  the  curtains  of 
the  bed,  announced  Mr.  Dayroles,  "  Give  Dayroles  a  chair !  " 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


89 


"  This  good  breeding/'  observed  the  late  Dr.  Warren,  his 
physician,  "  only  quits  him  with  his  life."  The  last  words  of 
Nelson  were,  "Tell  Collingwood  to  bring  the  fleet  to  an 
anchor."  The  tranquil  grandeur  which  cast  a  new  majesty 
over  Charles  the  First  on  the  scaffold,  appeared  when  he 
declared,  "  I  fear  not  death  !  Death  is  not  terrible  to  me  !  " 
And  the  characteristic  pleasantry  of  Sir  Thomas  More  ex- 
hilarated his  last  moments,  when,  observing  the  weakness  of 
the  scaffold,  he  said,  in  mounting  it,  "  I  pray  you,  see  me  up 
safe,  and  for  my  coming  down,  let  me  shift  for  myself!" 
Sir  Walter  Rawleigh  passed  a  similar  jest  when  going  to  the 
scaffold. 

My  ingenious  friend  Dr.  Sherwen  has  furnished  me  with 
the  following  anecdotes  of  death : — In  one  of  the  bloody 
battles  fought  by  the  Duke  d'Enghien,  two  French  noblemen 
were  left  wounded  among  the  dead  on  the  field  of  battle. 
One  complained  loudly  of  his  pains ;  the  other,  after  long 
silence,  thus  offered  him  consolation :  "  My  friend,  whoever 
you  are,  remember  that  our  God  died  on  the  cross,  our  king 
on  the  scaffold ;  and  if  you  have  strength  to  look  at  him  who 
now  speaks  to  you,  you  will  see  that  both  his  legs  are  shot 
away." 

At  the  murder  of  the  Duke  d'Enghien,  the  royal  victim, 
looking  at  the  soldiers,  who  had  pointed  their  fusees,  said, 
"  Grenadiers ! "  lower  your  arms,  otherwise  you  will  miss,  or 
only  wound  me ! "  To  two  of  them  who  proposed  to  tie  a 
handkerchief  over  his  eyes,  he  said,  "  A  loyal  soldier  who 
has  been  so  often  exposed  to  fire  and  sword,  can  see  the 
approach  of  death  with  naked  eyes  and  without  fear." 

After  a  similar  caution  on  the  part  of  Sir  George  Lisle, 
or  Sir  Charles  Lucas,  when  murdered  in  nearly  the  same 
manner  at  Colchester,  by  the  soldiers  of  Fairfax,  the  loyal 
hero,  in  answer  to  their  assertions  and  assurances  that  they 
vvould  take  care  not  to  miss  him,  nobly  replied,  "  You  have 
often  missed  me  when  I  have  been  nearer  to  you  in  the 
field  of  battle." 


00 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


When  the  governor  of  Cadiz,  the  Marquis  de  Solano,  was 
murdered  by  the  enraged  and  mistaken  citizens,  to  one  of  his 
murderers,  who  had  run  a  pike  through  his  back,  he  calmly 
turned  round  and  said,  "  Coward,  to  strike  there !  Come 
round — if  you  dare  face — and  destroy  me  ! " 

Abernethy,  in  his  Physiological  Lectures,  has  ingeniously 
observed,  that  "  Shakspeare  has  represented  Mercutio  con- 
tinuing to  jest,  though  conscious  that  he  was  mortally 
wounded ;  the  expiring  Hotspur  thinking  of  nothing  but 
honour;  and  the  dying  Falstaff  still  cracking  his  jests  upon 
Bardolph's  nose.  If  such  facts  were  duly  attended  to,  they 
would  prompt  us  to  make  a  more  liberal  allowance  for  each 
other's  conduct,  under  certain  circumstances,  than  we  are 
accustomed  to  do."  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  whenever 
the  functions  of  the  mind  are  not  disturbed  by  "  the  nervous 
functions  of  the  digestive  organs,"  the  personal  character 
predominates  even  in  death,  and  its  habitual  associations  exist 
to  its  last  moments.  Many  religious  persons  may  have  died 
without  showing  in  their  last  moments  any  of  those  exterior 
acts,  or  employing  those  fervent  expressions,  which  the  col- 
lector of  "  The  Book  of  Death  "  would  only  deign  to  chron- 
icle ;  their  hope  is  not  gathered  in  their  last  hour. 

Yet  many  have  delighted  to  taste  of  death  long  before 
they  have  died,  and  have  placed  before  their  eyes  all  the 
furniture  of  mortality.  The  horrors  of  a  charnel-house  is 
the  scene  of  their  pleasure.  The  "  Midnight  Meditations  " 
of  Quarles  preceded  Young's  "  Night  Thoughts  "  by  a  cen- 
tury, and  both  these  poets  loved  preternatural  terror. 

"  If  I  must  die,  I'll  snatch  at  every  thing 

That  may  but  mind  me  of  my  latest  breath; 
Death's-heads,  Graves,  Knells,  Blacks,*  Tombs,  all 
these  shall  bring 
Into  my  soul  such  useful  thoughts  of  death, 
That  this  sable  king  of  fears 
Shall  not  catch  me  unawares." — Quarles. 

*  Blacks  was  the  term  for  mourning  in  James  the  First  and  Charles  the 
First's  time. 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


91 


But  it  may  be  doubful  whether  the  thoughts  of  death  are 
useful,  whenever  they  put  a  man  out  of  the  possession  of  bis 
faculties.  Young  pursued  the  scheme  of  Quarles :  lie  raised 
about  him  an  artificial  emotion  of  death :  he  darkened  his 
sepulchral  study,  placing  a  skull  on  his  table  by  lamp-light; 
as  Dr.  Donne  had  his  portrait  taken,  first  winding  a  sheet 
over  his  head  and  closing  his  eyes  ;  keeping  this  melancholy 
picture  by  his  bed-side  as  long  as  he  lived,  to  remind  him  of 
his  mortality.  Young,  even  in  his  garden,  had  his  conceits 
of  death :  at  the  end  of  an  avenue  was  viewed  a  seat  of  an 
admirable  chiaro-oscuro,  which,  when  approached,  presented 
only  a  painted  surface,  with  an  inscription,  alluding  to  the 
deception  of  the  things  of  this  world.  To  be  looking  at 
"  the  mirror  which  flatters  not ;  "  to  discover  ourselves  only 
as  a  skeleton  with  the  horrid  life  of  corruption  about  us,  has 
been  among  those  penitential  inventions,  which  have  often 
ended  in  shaking  the  innocent  by  the  pangs  which  are  only 
natural  to  the  damned.  Without  adverting  to  those  numer- 
ous testimonies,  the  diaries  of  fanatics,  I  shall  offer  a  picture 
of  an  accomplished  and  innocent  lady,  in  a  curious  and  un- 
affected transcript  she  has  left  of  a  mind  of  great  sensibility, 
where  the  preternatural  terror  of  death  might  perhaps  have 
hastened  the  premature  one  she  suffered. 

From  the  "  Reliquiae  Gethinianae,"  *  I  quote  some  of 
Lady  Gethin's  ideas  on  "  Death." — "  The  very  thoughts  of 
death  disturb  one's  reason ;  and  though  a  man  may  have 
many  excellent  qualities,  yet  he  may  have  the  weakness  of 
not  commanding  his  sentiments.  Nothing  is  worse  for  one's 
health  than  to  be  in  fear  of  death.  There  are  some  so  wise 
as  neither  to  hate  nor  fear  it;  but  for  my  part  I  have  an 
aversion  for  it ;  and  with  reason  ;  for  it  is  a  rash  inconsider- 
ate thing,  that  always  comes  before  it  is  looked  for;  always 
comes  unseasonably,  parts  friends,  ruins  beauty,  laughs  at 
youth  and  draws  a  dark  veil  over  all  the  pleasures  of  life. — 

*  My  discovery  of  the  nature  of  this  rare  volume,  of  what  is  original 
und  what  collected,  will  be  found  in  a  previous  article. 


92 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


This  dreadful  evil  is  but  the  evil  of  a  moment,  and  what  we 
cannot  by  any  means  avoid  ;  and  it  is  that  which  makes  it  so 
terrible  to  me  ;  for  were  it  uncertain,  hope  might  diminish 
some  part  of  the  fear ;  but  when  I  think  I  must  die,  and  that 
I  may  die  every  moment,  and  that  too  a  thousand  several 
ways,  I  am  in  such  a  fright  as  you  cannot  imagine.  I  see 
dangers  where,  perhaps,  there  never  were  any.  I  am  per- 
suaded 'tis  happy  to  be  somewhat  dull  of  apprehension  in 
this  case ;  and  yet  the  best  way  to  cure  the  pensiveness  of 
the  thoughts  of  death  is  to  think  of  it  as  little  as  possible." 
She  proceeds  by  enumerating  the  terrors  of  the  fearful,  who 
"  cannot  enjoy  themselves  in  the  pleasantest  places,  and  al- 
though they  are  neither  on  sea,  river,  or  creek,  but  in  good 
health  in  their  chamber,  yet  are  they  so  well  instructed  with 
the  fear  of  dying,  that  they  do  not  measure  it  only  by  the 
'present  dangers  that  wait  on  us. — Then  is  it  not  best  to  sub- 
mit to  God  ?  But  some  people  cannot  do  it  as  they  would  ; 
and  though  they  are  not  destitute  of  reason  but  perceive 
they  are  to  blame,  yet  at  the  same  time  that  their  reason 
condemns  them,  their  imagination  makes  their  hearts  feel 
what  it  pleases." 

Such  is  the  picture  of  an  ingenious  and  a  religious  mind, 
drawn  by  an  amiable  woman,  who,  it  is  evident,  lived  always 
in  the  fear  of  death.  The  Gothic  skeleton  was  ever  haunt- 
ing her  imagination.  In  Dr.  Johnson  the  same  horror  was 
suggested  by  the  thoughts  of  death.  When  Boswell  once  in 
conversation  persecuted  Johnson  on  this  subject,  whether  we 
might  not  fortify  our  minds  for  the  approach  of  death  ;  he 
answered  in  a  passion,  "  No,  sir !  let  it  alone  !  It  matters 
not  how  a  man  dies,  but  how  he  lives  !  The  art  of  dying  is 
not  of  importance,  it  lasts  so  short  a  time  !  "  But  when  Bos- 
well persisted  in  the  conversation,  Johnson  was  thrown  into 
such  a  state  of  agitation,  that  he  thundered  out  "  Give  us  no 
more  of  this  ! "  and,  further,  sternly  told  the  trembling  and 
too  curious  philosopher,  "  Don't  let  us  meet  to-morrow  ! " 

It  may  be  a  question  whether  those  who  by  their  prepara- 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


93 


tory  conduct  have  appeared  to  show  the  greatest  indifference 
for  death,  have  not  rather  betrayed  the  most  curious  art  to 
disguise  its  terrors.  Some  have  invented  a  mode  of  escap- 
ing from  life  in  the  midst  of  convivial  enjoyment.  A  mortu- 
ary preparation  of  this  kind  has  been  recorded  of  an  amiable 
man,  Moncriff,  the  author  of  "  Histoire  des  Chats "  and 
"  L'Art  de  Plaire,"  by  his  literary  friend  La  Place,  who 
was  an  actor  in,  as  well  as  the  historian  of,  the  singular  nar- 
rative. One  morning  La  Place  received  a  note  from  Mon- 
criff, requesting  that  "  he  would  immediately  select  for  him  a 
dozen  volumes  most  likely  to  amuse,  and  of  a  nature  to  with- 
draw the  reader  from  being  occupied  by  melancholy  thoughts." 
La  Place  was  startled  at  the  unusual  request,  and  flew  to 
his  old  friend,  whom  he  found  deeply  engaged  in  being  meas- 
ured for  a  new  peruke,  and  a  taffety  robe-de-chambre,  ear- 
nestly enjoining  the  utmost  expedition.  "  Shut  the  door  !  " 
— said  Moncriff,  observing  the  surprise  of  his  friend.  "And 
now  that  we  are  alone,  I  confide  my  secret :  on  rising  this 
morning,  my  valet  in  dressing  me  showed  me  on  this  leg  this 
dark  spot — from  that  moment  I  knew  I  was  4  condemned  to 
death  ; '  but  I  had  presence  of  mind  enough  not  to  betray 
myself."  "  Can  a  head  so  well  organized  as  yours  imagine 
that  such  a  trifle  is  a  sentence  of  death  ?  " — "  Don't  speak  so 
loud,  my  friend  !  or  rather  deign  to  listen  a  moment.  At  my 
age  it  is  fatal !  The  system  from  which  I  have  derived  the 
felicity  of  a  long  life  has  been,  that  whenever  any  evil,  moral 
or  physical,  happens  to  us,  if  there  is  a  remedy,  all  must  be 
sacrificed  to  deliver  us  from  it — but  in  a  contrary  case,  I  do 
not  choose  to  wrestle  with  destiny  and  to  begin  complaints, 
endless  as  useless  !  All  that  I  request  of  you,  my  friend,  is 
to  assist  me  to  pass  away  the  few  days  which  remain  for  me, 
free  from  all  cares,  of  which  otherwise  they  might  be  too  sus- 
ceptible. But  do  not  think,"  he  added  with  warmth,  "  that 
I  mean  to  elude  the  religious  duties  of  a  citizen,  which  so 
many  of  late  affect  to  contemn.  The  good  and  virtuous  cu- 
rate of  my  parish  is  coming  here  under  a  pretext  of  an  an- 


94 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEATH. 


nual  contribution,  and  I  have  even  ordered  my  physician,  on 
whose  confidence  I  can  rely.  Here  is  a  list  of  ten  or  twelve 
persons,  friends  beloved !  who  are  mostly  known  to  you.  I 
shall  write  to  them  this  evening,  to  tell  them  of  my  condem- 
nation ;  but  if  they  wish  me  to  live,  they  will  do  me  the  fav- 
our to  assemble  here  at  five  in  the  evening,  where  they  may 
be  certain  of  finding  all  those  objects  of  amusement,  which  I 
shall  study  to  discover  suitable  to  their  tastes.  And  you, 
my  old  friend,  with  my  doctor,  are  two  on  whom  I  most  de- 
pend.'' 

La  Place  was  strongly  affected  by  this  appeal — neither 
Socrates,  nor  Cato,  nor  Seneca  looked  more  serenely  on  the 
approach  of  death. 

"  Familiarize  yourself  early  with  death ! "  said  the  good 
old  man  with  a  smile — "It  is  only  dreadful  for  those  who 
dread  it ! " 

During  ten  days  after  this  singular  conversation,  the  whole 
of  MoncrifF's  remaining  life,  his  apartment  was  open  to  his 
friends,  of  whom  several  were  ladies  ;  all  kinds  of  games 
were  played  till  nine  o'clock ;  and  that  the  sorrows  of  the 
host  might  not  disturb  his  guests,  he  played  the  chouette  at 
his  favourite  game  of  picquet ;  a  supper,  seasoned  by  the 
wit  of  the  master,  concluded  at  eleven.  On  the  tenth  night, 
in  taking  leave  of  his  friend,  MoncrifF  whispered  to  him, 
"  Adieu,  my  friend !  to-morrow  morning  I  shall  return  your 
books  !  "    He  died,  as  he  foresaw,  the  following  day. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  we  might  form  a  history  of 
this  fear  of  death,  by  tracing  the  first  appearances  of  the 
skeleton  which  haunts  our  funereal  imagination.  In  the 
modern  history  of  mankind,  we  might  discover  some  very 
strong  contrasts  in  the  notion  of  death  entertained  by  men  at 
various  epochs.  The  following  article  will  supply  a  sketch 
of  this  kind. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH.  95 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 

Euthanasia  !  Euthanasia  !  an  easy  death  !  was  the  excla- 
mation of  Augustus  ;  it  was  what  Antoninus  Pius  enjoyed ; 
and  it  is  that  for  which  every  wise  man  will  pray,  said  Lord 
Orrery,  when  perhaps  he  was  contemplating  the  close  of 
Swift's  life. 

The  ancients  contemplated  death  without  terror,  and  met 
it  with  indifference.  It  was  the  only  divinity  to  which  they 
never  sacrificed,  convinced  that  no  human  being  could  turn 
aside  its  stroke.  They  raised  altars  to  Fever,  to  Misfortune, 
to  all  the  evils  of  life ;  for  these  might  change  !  But  though 
they  did  not  court  the  presence  of  death  in  any  shape,  they 
acknowledged  its  tranquillity;  and  in  the  beautiful  fables 
of  their  allegorical  religion,  Death  was  the  daughter  of  Night, 
and  the  sister  of  Sleep  ;  and  ever  the  friend  of  the  unhappy ! 
To  the  eternal  sleep  of  death  they  dedicated  their  sepulchral 
monuments — JEternali  somno  !  *  If  the  full  light  of  reve- 
lation had  not  yet  broken  on  them,  it  can  hardly  be  denied 
that  they  had  some  glimpses  and  a  dawn  of  the  life  to  come, 
from  the  many  allegorical  inventions  which  describe  the 
transmigration  of  the  soul.  A  butterfly  on  the  extremity  of 
an  extinguished  lamp,  held  up  by  the  messenger  of  the  gods, 
intently  gazing  above,  implied  a  dedication  of  that  soul; 
Love,  with  a  melancholy  air,  his  legs  crossed,  leaning  on  an 
inverted  torch,  the  flame  thus  naturally  extinguishing  itself, 
elegantly  denoted  the  cessation  of  human  life ;  a  rose  sculp- 
tured on  a  sarcophagus,  or  the  emblems  of  epicurean  life 
traced  on  it,  in  a  skull  wreathed  by  a  chaplet  of  flowers,  such 
as  they  wore  at  their  convivial  meetings,  a  flask  of  wine,  a 
patera,  and  the  small  bones  used  as  dice :  all  these  symbols 
were  indirect  allusions  to  death,  veiling  its  painful  recollec- 
tions. They  did  not  pollute  their  imagination  with  the  con- 
tents of  a  charnel-house.  The  sarcophagi  of  the  ancients 
*  Montfaucon,  L'  Antiquity  Expliqu^e,  I.  362. 


96 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


rather  recall  to  us  the  remembrance  of  the  activity  of  life ; 
for  they  are  sculptured  with  battles  or  games,  in  basso 
relievo  ;  a  sort  of  tender  homage  paid  to  the  dead,  observes 
Mad.  de  Stael,  with  her  peculiar  refinement  of  thinking. 

It  would  seem  that  the  Romans  had  even  an  aversion  to 
mention  death  in  express  terms,  for  they  disguised  its  very 
name  by  some  periphrasis,  such  as  discessit  e  vita,  "  he  has 
departed  from  life  ; "  and  they  did  not  say  that  their  friend 
had  died,  but  that  he  had  lived ;  vixit!  In  the  old  Latin 
chronicles,  and  even  in  the  Fcedera  and  other  documents  of 
the  middle  ages,  we  find  the  same  delicacy  about  using  the 
fatal  word  Death,  especially  when  applied  to  kings  and  great 
people.  "  Transire  a  Scecido — Vitam  suam  mutare — Si 
quid  de  eo  humanities  contigerit,  fyc."  I  am  indebted  to  Mr. 
Merivale  for  this  remark.  Even  among  a  people  less  re- 
fined, the  obtrusive  idea  of  death  has  been  studiously 
avoided :  we  are  told  that  when  the  Emperor  of  Morocco  in- 
quires after  any  one  who  has  recently  died,  it  is  against 
etiquette  to  mention  the  word  "  death  ;  "  the  answer  i.-,  kk  his 
destiny  is  closed !  "  But  this  tenderness  is  only  reserved  for 
"the  elect"  of  the  Mussulmen.  A  Jew's  death  is  at  once 
plainly  expressed  :  "  He  is  dead,  sir !  asking  your  pardon 
for  mentioning  such  a  contemptible  wretch ! "  i.  e.  a  Jew  !  A 
Christian's  is  described  by  «  The  infidel  is  dead !  "  or,  "  The 
cuckold  is  dead !  " 

The  ancient  artists  have  so  rarely  attempted  to  personify 
Death,  that  we  have  not  discovered  a  single  revolting  image 
of  this  nature  in  all  the  works  of  antiquity.* — To  conceal  its 
deformity  to  the  eye,  as  well  as  to  elude  its  suggestion  to 
the  mind,  seems  to  have  been  an  universal  feeling,  and  it 

*  A  representation  of  Death  by  a  skeleton  appears  among  the  Egyp- 
tians: a  custom  more  singular  than  barbarous  prevailed,  of  inclosing  a 
skeleton  of  beautiful  workmanship  in  a  small  coffin,  which  the  bearer 
carried  round  at  their  entertainments ;  observing,  "  after  death  you  will 
resemble  this  figure:  drink,  then!  and  be  happy;  "  a  symbol  of  Death  in 
a  convivial  party  was  not  designed  to  excite  terrific  or  gloomy  ideas,  but  a 
recollection  of  the  brevity  of  human  life. 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


07 


accorded  with  a  fundamental  principle  of  ancient  art ;  that 
of  never  permitting  violent  passion  to  produce  in  its  repre- 
sentation distortion  of  form.  This  may  be  observed  in  the 
Laocoon,  where  the  mouth  only  opens  sufficiently  to  indicate 
the  suppressed  agony  of  superior  humanity,  without  express- 
ing the  loud  cry  of  vulgar  suffering.  Pausanias  considered 
as  a  personification  of  death  a  female  figure,  whose  teeth  and 
nails,  long  and  crooked,  were  engraven  on  a  coffin  of  cedai-j 
which  inclosed  the  body  of  Cypselus ;  this  female  was  un- 
questionably only  one  of  the  Parcce,  or  the  Fates,  "  watchful 
to  cut  the  thread  of  life."  Hesiod  describes  Atropos  indeed 
as  having  sharp  teeth,  and  long  nails,  waiting  to  tear  and 
devour  the  dead ;  but  this  image  was  of  a  barbarous  era. 
Catullus  ventured  to  personify  the  Sister  Destinies  as  three 
Crones  ;  "  but  in  general,''  Winkelmann  observes,  "  they  are 
portrayed  as  beautiful  virgins,  with  winged  heads,  one  of 
whom  is  always  in  the  attitude  of  writing  on  a  scroll." 
Death  was  a  nonenity  to  the  ancient  artist.  Could  he  ex- 
hibit what  represents  nothing  ?  Could  he  animate  into  action 
what  lies  in  a  state  of  eternal  tranquillity  ?  Elegant  images 
of  repose  and  tender  sorrow  were  all  he  could  invent  to  indi- 
cate the  state  of  death.  Even  the  terms  which  different 
nations  have  bestowed  on  a  burial-place  are  not  associated 
with  emotions  of  horror.  The  Greeks  called  a  burying- 
ground  by  the  soothing  term  of  Coemeterion,  or,  "  the  sleep- 
ing-place;" the  Jews,  who  had  no  horrors  of  the  grave,  by 
Beth-haim,  or,  "the  house  of  the  living;"  the  Germans, 
with  religious  simplicity,  "  God's-field."  The  Scriptures  had 
only  noticed  that  celestial  being  "  the  Angel  of  Death," — 
graceful,  solemn,  and  sacred ! 

Whence,  then,  originated  that  stalking  skeleton,  suggesting 
so  many  false  and  sepulchral  ideas,  and  which  for  us  has  so 
long  served  as  the  image  of  death  ? 

When  the  Christian  religion  spread  over  Europe,  the 
world  changed !  the  certainty  of  a  future  state  of  existence, 
by  the  artifices  of  wicked  worldly  men,  terrified  instead  of 

VOL.  IV.  7 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


consoling  human  nature  ;  and  in  the  resurrection  the  ignorant 
multitude  seemed  rather  to  have  dreaded  retribution,  than  to 
have  hoped  for  remuneration.  The  Founder  of  Christianity 
everywhere  breathes  the  blessedness  of  social  feelings.  It  is 
"Our  Father!"  whom  he  addresses.  The  horrors  with 
which  Christianity  was  afterwards  disguised  arose  in  the 
corruptions  of  Christianity  among  those  insane  ascetics,  who, 
misinterpreting  "  the  Word  of  Life,"  trampled  on  nature ; 
and  imagined  that  to  secure  an  existence  in  the  other  world 
it  was  necessary  not  to  exist  in  the  one  in  which  God  had 
placed  them.  The  dominion  of  mankind  fell  into  the  usurp- 
ing hands  of  those  imperious  monks  whose  artifices  trafficked 
with  the  terrors  of  ignorant  and  hypochondriac  "  Kaisers  and 
kings."  The  scene  was  darkened  by  penances  and  by  pil- 
grimages, by  midnight  vigils,  by  miraculous  shrines,  and 
bloody  flagellations ;  spectres  started  up  amidst  their  tene- 
bres ;  millions  of  masses  increased  their  supernatural  influ- 
ence. Amidst  this  general  gloom  of  Europe,  their  troubled 
imaginations  were  frequently  predicting  the  end  of  the  world. 
It  was  at  this  period  that  they  first  beheld  the  grave  yawn, 
and  Death,  in  the  Gothic  form  of  a  gaunt  anatomy,  parading 
through  the  universe  !  The  people  were  frightened,  as  they 
viewed  everywhere  hung  before  their  eyes,  in  the  twilight  of 
their  cathedrals,  and  their  "  pale  cloisters,"  the  most  revolting 
emblems  of  death.  They  startled  the  traveller  on  the  bridge ; 
they  stared  on  the  sinner  in  the  carvings  of  his  table  and 
chair ;  the  spectre  moved  in  the  hangings  of  the  apartment ; 
it  stood  in  the  niche,  and  was  the  picture  of  their  sitting- 
room  ;  it  was  worn  in  their  rings,  while  the  illuminator 
shaded  the  bony  phantom  in  the  margins  of  their  "  Horae," 
their  primers,  and  their  breviaries.  Their  barbarous  taste 
perceived  no  absurdity  in  giving  action  to  a  heap  of  dry 
bones,  which  could  only  keep  together  in  a  state  of  immova- 
bility and  repose ;  nor  that  it  was  burlesquing  the  awful  idea 
of  the  resurrection,  by  exhibiting  the  incorruptible  spirit 
under  the  unnatural  and  ludicrous  figure  of  mortality  drawn 
out  of  the  corruption  of  the  grave. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


99 


An  anecdote  of  these  monkish  times  has  been  preserved 
by  old  Gerard  Leigh ;  and  as  old  stories  are  best  set  off  by 
old  words,  Gerard  speaketh !  "  The  great  Maximilian  the 
emperor  came  to  a  monastery  in  High  Almaine,  (Germany,) 
the  monks  whereof  had  caused  to  be  curiously  painted  the 
charnel  of  a  man,  which  they  termed — Death !  When  that 
well-learned  emperor  had  beholden  it  awhile,  he  called  unto 
him  his  painter,  commanding  to  blot  the  skeleton  out,  and  to 
paint  therein  the  image  of— *a  fool.  Wherewith  the  abbot, 
humbly  beseeching  him  to  the  contrary,  said  4  It  was  a  good 
remembrance  ! ' — '  Nay,'  quoth  the  emperor,  1  as  vermin  that 
annoy eth  man's  body  cometh  unlooked  for,  so  doth  death, 
which  here  is  but  a  fained  image,  and  life  is  a  certain  thing, 
if  we  know  to  deserve  it.' "  *  The  original  mind  of  Maxi- 
milian the  Great  is  characterized  by  this  curious  story  of  con- 
verting our  emblem  of  death  into  a  parti-coloured  fool ;  and 
such  satirical  allusions  to  the  folly  of  those  who  persisted  in 
their  notion  of  the  skeleton  were  not  unusual  with  the 
artists  of  those  times ;  we  find  the  figure  of  a  fool  sitting 
with  some  drollery  between  the  legs  of  one  of  these  skele- 
tons. | 

This  story  is  associated  with  an  important  fact.  After 
they  had  successfully  terrified  the  people  with  their  charnel- 
house  figure,  a  reaction  in  the  public  feelings  occurred,  for 
the  skeleton  was  now  employed  as  a  medium  to  convey  the 
most  facetious,  satirical,  and  burlesque  notions  of  human  life. 
Death,  which  had  so  long  harassed  their  imaginations,  sud- 
denly changed  into  a  theme  fertile  in  coarse  humour.  The 
Italians  were  too  long  accustomed  to  the  study  of  the  beau- 
tiful to  allow  their  pencil  to  sport  with  deformity ;  but  the 
Gothic  taste  of  the  German  artists,  who  could  only  copy  their 
own  homely  nature,  delighted  to  give  human  passions  to  the 
hideous  physiognomy  of  a  noseless  skull ;  to  put  an  eye  of 
mockery  or  malignity  into  its  hollow  socket,  and  to  stretch 

*  The  Accidence  of  Armorie,  p.  199. 

f  A  woodcut  preserved  in  Mr.  Dibdin's  Bib.  Dec.  i.  35. 


100  HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


out  the  gaunt  anatomy  into  the  postures  of  a  Hogarth ;  and 
that  the  ludicrous  mifdit  be  carried  to  its  extreme,  this  ima£- 
inary  being,  taken  from  the  bone-house,  was  viewed  in  the 
action  of  dancing  !  This  blending  of  the  grotesque  with  the 
most  disgusting  image  of  mortality,  is  the  more  singular  part 
of  this  history  of  the  skeleton,  and  indeed  of  human  nature 
itself ! 

"  The  Dance  of  Death,"  erroneously  considered  as  Hol- 
bein's, with  other  similar  Dance's,  however  differently  treated, 
have  one  common  subject  which  was  painted  in  the  arcades 
of  burying-grounds,  or  on  town-halls,  and  in  market-places. 
The  subject  is  usually  "  The  Skeleton  "  in  the  act  of  leading 
all  ranks  and  conditions  to  the  grave,  personated  after  na- 
ture, and  in  the  strict  costume  of  the  times.  This  invention 
opened  a  new  field  for  genius  ;  and  when  we  can  for  a  mo- 
ment forget  their  luckless  choice  of  their  bony  and  bloodless 
hero,  who  to  amuse  us  by  a  variety  of  action  becomes  a  sort 
of  horrid  Harlequin  in  these  pantomimical  scenes,  we  may  be 
delighted  by  the  numerous  human  characters,  which  are  so 
vividly  presented  to  us.  The  origin  of  this  extraordinary 
invention  is  supposed  to  be  a  favourite  pageant,  or  religious 
mummery,  invented  by  the  clergy,  who-in  these  ages  of  bar- 
barous Christianity  always  found  it  necessary  to  amuse,  as 
well  as  to  frighten  the  populace ;  a  circumstance  well  known 
to  have  occurred  in  so  many  other  grotesque  and  licentious 
festivals  they  allowed  the  people.  The  practice  of  dancing 
in  churches  and  churchyards  was  interdicted  by  several 
councils  ;  but  it  was  found  convenient  in  those  rude  times. 
It  seems  probable  that  the  clergy  contrived  the  present 
dance,  as  more  decorous  and  not  without  moral  and  religious 
emotions.  This  pageant  was  performed  in  churches,  in  which 
the  chief  characters  in  society  were  supported  in  a  sort  of 
masquerade,  mixing  together  in  a  general  dance,  in  the  course 
of  which  every  one  in  his  turn  vanished  from  the  scene,  to 
show  how  one  after  the  other  died  off.  The  subject  was  at 
once  poetical  and  ethical ;  and  the  poets  and  painters  of  Ger- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH.  101 


many  adopting  the  skeleton,  sent  forth  this  chimerical  Ulysses 
of  another  world  to  roam  among  the  men  and  manners  of 
their  own.  A  popular  poem  was  composed,  said  to  be  by 
one  Macaber,  which  name  seems  to  be  a  corruption  of  St. 
Macaire  ;  the  old  Gaulish  version,  reformed,  is  still  printed 
at  Troyes,  in  France,  with  the  ancient  blocks  of  woodcuts, 
under  the  title  of  "  La  grande  Danse  Macabre  des  Hommes 
et  des  Femmes."  Merian's  "  Todten  Tanz,"  or  the  "  Dance 
of  the  Dead,"  is  a  curious  set  of  prints  of  a  Dance  of  Death 
from  an  ancient  painting,  I  think  not  entirely  defaced,  in  a 
cemetery  at  Basle,  in  Switzerland.  It  was  ordered  to  be 
painted  by  a  council  held  there  during  many  years,  to  com- 
memorate the  mortality  occasioned  by  a  plague  in  1439. 
The  prevailing  character  of  all  these  works  is  unquestionably 
grotesque  and  ludicrous  ;  not,  however,  that  genius,  however 
barbarous,  could  refrain  in  this  large  subject  of  human  life 
from  inventing  scenes  often  imagined  with  great  delicacy  of 
conception,  and  even  great  pathos.  Such  is  the  new-married 
couple,  whom  Death  is  leading,  beating  a  drum ;  and  in  the 
rapture  of  the  hour,  the  bride  seems,  with  a  melancholy  look, 
not  insensible  of  his  presence  ;  or  Death  is  seen  issuing  from 
the  cottage  of  the  poor  widow  with  her  youngest  child,  who 
waves  his  hand  sorrowfully,  while  the  mother  and  the  sister 
vainly. answer  ;  or  the  old  man,  to  whom  Death  is  playing  on 
a  psaltery,  seems  anxious  that  his  withered  fingers  should 
once  more  touch  the  strings,  while  he  is  carried  off  in  calm 
tranquillity.  The  greater  part  of  these  subjects  of  death  are, 
however,  ludicrous  ;  and  it  may  be  a  question,  whether  the 
spectators  of  these  Dances  of  Death  did  not  find  their  mirth 
more  excited  than  their  religious  emotions.  Ignorant  and 
terrified  as  the  people  were  at  the  view  of  the  skeleton,  even 
the  grossest  simplicity  could  not  fail  to  laugh  at  some  of  those 
domestic  scenes  and  familiar  persons  drawn  from  among 
themselves.  The  skeleton,  skeleton  as  it  is,  in  the  creation 
of  genius,  gesticulates  and  mimics,  while  even  its  hideous 
skull  is  made  to  express  every  diversified  character,  and 


102         HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


the  result  is  hard  to  describe  ;  for  we  are  at  once  amused 
and  disgusted  with  so  much  genius  founded  on  so  much 
barbarism.* 

When  the  artist  succeeded  in  conveying  to  the  eye  the 
most  ludicrous  notions  of  death,  the  poets  also  discovered  in 
it  a  fertile  source  of  the  burlesque.  The  curious  collector  is 
acquainted  with  many  volumes  where  the  most  extraordinary 
topics  have  been  combined  with  this  subject.  They  made 
the  body  and  the  soul  debate  together,  and  ridicule  the  com- 
plaints of  a  damned  soul !  The  greater  part  of  the  poets  of 
the  time  were  always  composing  on  the  subject  of  Death 
in  their  humorous  pieces.f  Such  historical  records  of  the 
public  mind,  historians,  intent  on  political  events,  have  rarely 
noticed. 

Of  a  work  of  this  nature,  a  popular  favourite  was  long  the 
one  entitled  "  Le  faut  mourir,  et  les  Excuses  Inutiles  qvton 
apporte  a  cette  Necessite  ;  Le  tout  en  vers  burlesques,  1658  :  " 
Jacques  Jacques,  a  canon  of  Ambrun,  was  the  writer,  who 
humorously  says  of  himself,  that  he  gives  his  thoughts  just  as 
they  lie  on  his  heart,  without  dissimulation  ;  "  for  I  have 
nothing  double  about  me  except  my  name  !  I  tell  thee  some 
of  the  most  important  truths  in  laughing ;  it  is  for  thee  d'y 
penser  tout  a  bon."  This  little  volume  was  procured  for  me 
with  some  difficulty  in  France  ;  and  it  is  considered  as  one 
of  the  happiest  of  this  class  of  death-poems,  of  which  I  know 
not  of  any  in  our  literature. 

Our  canon  of  Ambrun,  in  facetious  rhymes,  and  with 
the  naivete  of  expression  which  belongs  to  his  age,  and  an 
idiomatic  turn  fatal  to  a  translator,  excels  in  pleasantry  ;  his 
haughty  hero  condescends  to  hold  very  amusing  dialogues 

*  My  greatly-lamented  friend,  the  late  Mr.  Douce,  has  poured  forth  the 
most  curious  knowledge  on  this  singular  subject,  of  "  The  Dance  of  Death." 
This  learned  investigator  has  reduced  Macaber  to  a  nonentity,  but  not  "  The 
Macaber  Dance,"  which  has  been  frequently  painted.  Mr.  Douce's  edition 
is  accompanied  by  a  set  of  woodcuts,  which  have  not  unsuccessfully  cop- 
ted  the  exquisite  originals  of  the  Lyons  woodcutter. 

f  Goujet,  Bib.  Francoise,  vol.  x.  185. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


103 


with  all  classes  of  society,  and  delights  to  confound  their 
"  excuses  inutiles."  The  most  miserable  of  men,  the  galley- 
slave,  the  mendicant,  alike  would  escape  when  he  appears  to 
them.  "  Were  I  not  absolute  over  them,"  Death  exclaims, 
"  they  would  confound  me  with  their  long  speeches ;  but  I 
have  business,  and  must  gallop  on  ! "  His  geographical 
rhymes  are  droll. 

"  Ce  que  j'ai  fait  dans  1' Afrique 
Je  le  fais  bien  dans  l'Amdrique; 
On  l'appelle  monde  nouveau 
Mais  ce  sont  des  brides  a  veau; 
Nulle  terre  a  moy  n'est  nouvelle 
Je  vay  partout  sans  qu'on  m'appelle; 
Mon  bras  de  tout  temps  commanda 
Dans  le  pays  du  Canada; 
J'ai  tenu  de  tout  temps  en  bride 
La  Virginie  et  la  Floride, 
Et  j'ai  bien  donne"  sur  le  bee 
Aux  Francais  du  fort  de  Kebec. 
Lorsque  je  veux  je  fais  la  nique 
Aux  Incas,  aux  rois  de  Mexique; 
Et  montre  aux  Nouveaux  Gr^nadins 
Qu'ils  sont  des  foux  et  des  badins. 
Chacun  sait  bien  comme  je  matte 
Ceux  du  Br£sil  et  de  la  Plate, 
Ainsi  que  les  Taupinembous — 
En  un  mot,  je  fais  voir  a  tout 
Que  ce  que  nait  dans  la  nature, 
Doit  prendre  de  moy  tablature! "  * 

The  perpetual  employments  of  Death  display  copious 
invention  with  a  facility  of  humour. 

"  Egalement  je  vay  rangeant, 
Le  conseiller  et  le  serjent, 
Le  gentilhomme  et  le  berger, 
Le  bourgeois  et  le  boulanger, 
Et  la  maistresse  et  la  servante, 
Et  la  niece  comme  la  tante; 
Monsieur  l'abbe\  monsieur  son  moine, 
Le  petit  clerc  et  le  chanoine; 

*  Tablature  d'un  luth,  Cotgrave  says,  is  the  belly  of  a  lute,  meaning  "  all 
in  nature  must  dance  to  my  music !  " 


104  HISTORY  OF  THE  SKELETON  OF  DEATH. 


Sam  choix  je  mets  dans  mon  butin 

Maistre  Claude,  maistre  Martin, 

Dame  Luce,  dame  Perrette,  cfc. 

J'en  prend3  un  dans  le  temps  qu'il  pleure 

A  quelque  autre,  au  contraire  a  l'lieure 

Qui  d£m£sur£ment  il  rit; 

Je  donne  le  coup  qui  le  frit. 

J'en  prends  un,  pendant  qu'il  se  leve; 

En  se  couchant  l'autre  j'enleve. 

Je  prends  le  malade  et  le  sain 

L'un  aujourd'hui,  l'autre  le  demain. 

J'en  surprends  un  dedans  son  lit, 

L'autre  a  1'estude  quand  il  lit. 

J'en  surprends  un  le  ventre  plein 

Je  mene  l'autre  par  la  faim. 

J'attrape  l'un  pendant  qu'il  prie, 

Et  l'autre  pendant  qu'il  renie; 

J'en  saisis  un  au  cabaret 

Entre  le  blanc  et  le  clairet, 

L'autre  qui  dans  son  oratoire 

A  son  Dieu  rend  bonneur  et  gloire: 

J'en  surprends  un  lorsqu'il  se  psame 

Le  jour  qu'il  e'pouse  sa  femme, 

L'autre  le  jour  que  plein  de  deuil 

La  sienne  il  voit  dans  le  cercueil; 

Un  a  pied  et  l'autre  a  cheval, 

Dans  le  jeu  l'un,  et  l'autre  au  bal; 

Un  qui  mange  et  l'autre  qui  boit, 

Un  qui  pave  et  l'autre  qui  doit, 

L'un  en  £te  lorsqu'il  moissonne, 

L'autre  en  vendanges  dans  rautomne, 

L'un  criant  almanachs  nouveaux — 

Un  qui  demande  son  aumosne 

L'autre  dans  le  temps  qu'il  la  donne, 

Je  prends  le  bon  maistre  Clement, 

Au  temps  qu'il  prend  un  lavement, 

Et  prends  la  dame  Catherine 

Le  jour  qu'elle  prend  m^decine." 


This  veil  of  gaiety  in  the  old  canon  of  Ambrun  covers 
deeper  and  more  philosophical  thoughts  than  the  singular 
mode  of  treating  so  solemn  a  theme.  He  has  introduced 
many  scenes  of  human  life,  which  still  interest,  and  he  ad- 
dresses the  "  teste  a  triple  couronne,"  as  well  as  the  "  forcat 
de  galere,"  who  exclaims,  u  Laissez-moi  vivre  dans  mes 


THE  KIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 


105 


fers,"  "le  gueux,"  the  "bourgeois,"  the  "chanoine,"  the 
"pauvre  soldat,"  the  "medecin;"  in  a  word,  all  ranks  in 
life  are  exhibited,  as  in  all  the  "Dances  of  Death."  But 
our  object  in  noticing  these  burlesque  paintings  and  poems  is 
to  show,  that  after  the  monkish  Goths  bad  opened  one  gen- 
eral scene  of  melancholy  and  tribulation  over  Europe,  and 
given  birth  to  that  dismal  skeleton  of  death,  which  still  terri- 
fies the  imagination  of  many,  a  reaction  of  feeling  was 
experienced  by  the  populace,  who  at  length  came  to  laugh  at 
the  gloomy  spectre  which  had  so  long  terrified  them ! 


THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 

Peter  Hetlin  was  one  of  the  popular  writers  of  his 
times,  like  Fuller  and  Howell,  who  devoting  their  amusing 
pens  to  subjects  which  deeply  interested  their  own  busy  age, 
will  not  be  slighted  by  the  curious.  We  have  nearly  outlived 
their  divinity,  but  not  their  politics.  Metaphysical  absurdi- 
ties are  luxuriant  weeds  which  must  be  cut  down  by  the 
scythe  of  Time ;  but  the  great  passions  branching  from  the 
tree  of  life  are  still  "  growing  with  our  growth." 

There  are  two  biographies  of  our  Heylin,  which  led  to  a 
literary  quarrel  of  an  extraordinary  nature ;  and,  in  the  pro- 
gress of  its  secret  history,  all  the  feelings  of  rival  authorship 
were  called  out. 

Heylin  died  in  1662.  Dr.  Barnard,  his  son-in-law,  and  a 
scholar,  communicated  a  sketch  of  the  author's  life  to  be  pre- 
fixed to  a  posthumous  folio,  of  which  Heylin's  son  was  the 
editor.  This  life  was  given  by  the  son,  but  anonymously, 
which  may  not  have  gratified  the  author,  the  son-in-law. 

Twenty  years  had  elapsed  when,  in  1682,  appeared  "The 
Life  of  Dr.  Peter  Heylin,  by  George  Vernon."  The  writer, 
alluding  to  the  prior  life  prefixed  to  the  posthumous  folio, 
asserts,  that  in  borrowing  something  from  Barnard,  Barnard 


106  THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 

had  also  "  Excerpted  passages  out  of  my  papers,  the  very 
words  as  well  as  matter,  when  he  had  them  in  his  custody, 
as  any  reader  may  discern  who  will  be  at  the  pains  of  com- 
paring the  life  now  published  with  what  is  extant  before  the 
Keimalea  Ecclesiastica  ;  "  the  quaint,  pedantic  title,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  day,  of  the  posthumous  folio. 

This  strong  accusation  seemed  countenanced  by  a  dedica- 
tion to  the  son  and  the  nephew  of  Heylin.  Roused  now  into 
action,  the  indignant  Barnard  soon  produced  a  more  com- 
plete Life,  to  which  he  prefixed  "A  necessary  Vindication." 
This  is  an  unsparing  castigation  of  Vernon,  the  literary  pet 
whom  the  Heylins  had  fondled  in  preference  to  their  learned 
relative.  The  long  smothered  family  grudge,  the  suppressed 
mortifications  of  literary  pride,  after  the  subterraneous  grum- 
blings of  twenty  years,  now  burst  out,  and  the  volcanic  par- 
ticles flew  about  in  caustic  pleasantries  and  sharp  invectives ; 
all  the  lava  of  an  author's  vengeance,  mortified  by  the  choice 
of  an  inferior  rival. 

It  appears  that  Vernon  had  been  selected  by  the  son  of 
Heylin,  in  preference  to  his  brother-in-law,  Dr.  Barnard, 
from  some  family  disagreement.  Barnard  tells  us,  in  de- 
scribing Vernon,  that  "  No  man,  except  himself,  who  was 
totally  ignorant  of  the  Doctor,  and  all  the  circumstances  of 
his  life,  would  have  engaged  in  such  a  work,  which  was 
never  primarily  laid  out  for  him,  but  by  reason  of  some  un- 
happy differences,  as  usually  fall  out  in  families ;  and  he, 
who  loves  to  put  his  oar  in  troubled  waters,  instead  of  closing 
them  up,  hath  made  them  wider." 

Barnard  tells  his  story  plainly.  Heylin,  the  son,  intending 
to  have  a  more  elaborate  life  of  his  father  prefixed  to  his 
works,  Dr.  Barnard,  from  the  high  reverence  in  which  he 
held  the  memory  of  his  father-in-law,  offered  to  contribute  it. 
Many  conferences  were  held,  and  the  son  intrusted  him  writh 
several  papers.  But  suddenly  his  caprice,  more  than  his 
judgment,  fancied  that  George  Vernon  was  worth  John 
Barnard.    The  doctor  affects  to  describe  his  rejection  with 


THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 


107 


the  most  stoical  indifference.  He  tells  us,  "  I  was  satisfied, 
and  did  patiently  expect  the  coming  forth  of  the  work,  not 
only  term  after  term,  but  year  after  year,  a  very  considerable 
time  for  such  a  tract.  But  at  last,  instead  of  the  life,  came  a 
letter  to  me  from  a  bookseller  in  London,  who  lived  at  the 
sign  of  the  Black  Boy,  in  Fleet  Street." 

Now  it  seems  that  he  who  lived  at  the  Black  Boy  had 
combined  with  another  who  lived  at  the  Fleur  de  Luce,  and 
that  the  Fleur  de  Luce  had  assured  the  Black  Boy  that  Dr. 
Barnard  was  concerned  in  writing  the  Life  of  Heylin, — this 
was  a  strong  recommendation.  But  lo !  it  appeared  that 
"one  Mr.  Vernon,  of  Gloucester,"  was  to  be  the  man !  a 
gentle,  thin-skinned  authorling,  who  bleated  like  a  lamb,  and 
was  so  fearful  to  trip  out  of  its  shelter,  that  it  allows  the 
Black  Boy  and  the  Fleur  de  Luce  to  communicate  its  papers 
to  any  one  they  choose,  and  erase  or  add  at  their  pleasure. 

It  occurred  to  the  Black  Boy,  on  this  proposed  arith- 
metical criticism,  that  the  work  required  addition,  subtraction, 
and  division  ;  that  the  fittest  critic,  on  whose  name,  indeed, 
he  had  originally  engaged  in  the  work,  was  our  Dr.  Barnard ; 
and  he  sent  the  package  to  the  doctor,  who  resided  near 
Lincoln. 

The  doctor,  it  appears,  had  no  appetite  for  a  dish  dressed 
by  another,  while  he  himself  was  in  the  very  act  of  the 
cookery ;  and  it  was  suffered  to  lie  cold  for  three  weeks  at 
the  carrier's. 

But  intreated  and  overcome,  the  good  doctor  at  length 
sent  to  the  carrier's  for  the  life  of  his  father-in-law.  "  I  found 
it,  according  to  the  bookseller's  description,  most  lame  and  im- 
perfect ;  ill  begun,  worse  carried  on,  and  abruptly  concluded." 
The  learned  doctor  exercised  that  plenitude  of  power  with 
which  the  Black  Boy  had  invested  him ; — he  very  obligingly 
showed  the  author  in  what  a  confused  state  bis  materials  lay 
together,  and  how  to  put  them  in  order ; 

"  Nec  facundia  deseret  hunc,  nec  lucidus  ordo." 
If  his  rejections  were  copious,  to  show  his  good  will  as  well  as 


108 


THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 


his  severity,  his  additions  were  generous,  though  he  used  the 
precaution  of  carefully  distinguishing  by  "distinct  para- 
graphs "  his  own  insertions  amidst  Vernon's  mass,  with  a 
gentle  hint  that  "  He  knew  more  of  Heylin  than  any  man 
now  living,  and  ought  therefore  to  have  been  the  biographer." 
He  returned  the  MS.  to  the  gentleman  with  great  civility, 
but  none  he  received  back  !  When  Vernon  pretended  to  ask 
for  improvements,  he  did  not  imagine  that  the  work  was  to 
be  improved  by  being  nearly  destroyed ;  and  when  he  asked 
for  correction,  he  probably  expected  all  might  end  in  a  com- 
pliment. 

The  narrative  may  now  proceed  in  Vernon's  details  of  his 
doleful  mortifications,  in  being  "altered  and  mangled"  by 
Dr.  Barnard. 

"Instead  of  thanks  from  him  (Dr.  Barnard),  and  the  re- 
turn of  common  civility,  he  disfigured  my  papers,  that  no 
sooner  came  into  his  hands,  but  he  fell  upon  them  as  a  lion 
rampant,  or  the  cat  upon  the  poor  cock  in  the  fable,  saying, 
Tu  Iiodie  mihi  discerperis — so  my  papers  came  home  miser- 
ably clawed,  blotted,  and  blurred  ;  whole  sentences  dismem- 
bered, and  pages  scratched  out ;  several  leaves  omitted  which 
ought  to  be  printed, — shamefully  he  used  my  copy ;  so  that 
before  it  was  carried  to  the  press,  he  swooped  away  the 
second  part  of  the  Life  wholly  from  it — in  the  room  of  which 
he  shuffled  in  a  preposterous  conclusion  at  the  last  page, 
which  he  printed  in  a  different  character,  yet  could  not  keep 
himself  honest,  as  the  poet  saith, 

'  Dicitque  tua  pagina,  fur  es.' 

Martial. 

For  he  took  out  of  my  copy  Dr.  Heylin's  dream,  his  sick- 
ness, his  last  words  before  his  death,  and  left  out  the  burning 
of  his  surplice.  He  so  mangled  and  metamorphosed  the 
whole  Life  I  composed,  that  I  may  say  as  Sosia  did,  Egomet 
mihi  non  credo,  ille  alter  Sosia  me  malis  mulcavit  modis. — 
Plaut." 


THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 


109 


Dr.  Barnard  would  have  "  patiently  endured  these  wrongs ; " 
but  the  accusation  Vernon  ventured  on,  that  Barnard  was  the 
plagiary,  required  the  doctor  "  to  return  the  poisoned  chalice 
to  his  own  lips,"  that  "himself  was  the  plagiary  both  of 
words  and  matter."  The  fact  is,  that  this  reciprocal  accusa- 
tion was  owing  to  Barnard  having  had  a  prior  perusal  of 
Heylin's  papers,  which  afterwards  came  into  the  hands  of 
Vernon :  they  both  drew  their  waters  from  the  same  source. 
These  papers  Heylin  himself  had  left  for  "  a  rule  to  guide  the 
writer  of  his  life." 

Barnard  keenly  retorts  on  Vernon  for  his  surreptitious  use 
of  whole  pages  from  Heylin's  works,  which  he  has  appropri- 
ated to  himself  without  any  marks  of  quotation.  "  I  am  no 
such  excerptor  (as  he  calls  me)  ;  he  is  of  the  humour  of  the 
man  who  took  all  the  ships  in  the  Attic  haven  for  his  own, 
and  yet  was  himself  not  master  of  any  one  vessel." 

Again : — 

"  But  all  this  while  I  misunderstand  him,  for  possibly  he 
meaneth  his  own  dear  words  I  have  excerpted.  Why  doth 
he  not  speak  in  plain  downright  English,  that  the  world  may 
see  my  faults  ?  For  every  one  does  not  know  what  is  ex- 
cerpting. If  I  have  been  so  bold  to  pick  or  snap  a  word 
from  him,  I  hope  I  may  have  the  benefit  of  the  clergy. 
What  words  have  I  robbed  him  of? — and  how  have  I  become 
the  richer  for  them  ?  I  was  never  so  taken  with  him  as  to 
be  once  tempted  to  break  the  commandments,  because  I  love 
plain  speaking,  plain  writing,  and  plain  dealing,  which  he 
does  not :  I  hate  the  word  excerpted,  and  the  action  imported 
in  it.  However,  he  is  a  fanciful  man,  and  thinks  there  is  no 
elegancy  nor  wit  but  in  his  own  way  of  talking.  I  must  say 
as  Tully  did,  Malim  equidem  indisertam  prudentiam  qitam 
stultam  loquacitatem." 

In  his  turn  he  accuses  Vernon  of  being  a  perpetual  tran- 
scriber, and  for  the  Malone  minuteness  of  his  history. 

"  But  how  have  I  excerpted  his  matter  ?  Then  I  am  sure 
to  rob  the  spittle-house ;  for  he  is  so  poor  and  put  to  hard 


110 


THE  RIVAL  BIOGRAPHERS  OF  HEYLIN. 


Bhifts,  that  he  has  much  ado  to  compose  a  tolerable  story, 
which  he  hath  been  hammering  and  conceiving  in  his  mind 
for  four  years  together,  before  he  could  bring  forth  his  foetus 
of  intolerable  transcriptions  to  molest  the  reader's  patience 
and  memory.  How  doth  he  run  himself  out  of  breath,  some- 
times for  twenty  pages  and  more,  at  other  times  fifteen,  ordi- 
narily nine  arid  ten,  collected  out  of  Dr.  Heylin's  old  books, 
before  he  can  take  his  wind  again  to  return  to  his  story !  I 
never  met  with  such  a  transcriber  in  all  my  days  ;  for  want 
of  matter  to  fill  up  a  vacuum,  of  which  his  book  was  in  much 
danger,  he  hath  set  down  the  story  of  Westminster,  as  long 
as  the  Ploughman's  Tale  in  Chaucer,  which  to  the  reader 
would  have  been  more  pertinent  and  pleasant.  I  wonder  he 
did  not  transcribe  bills  of  Chancery,  especially  about  a  tedi- 
ous suit  my  father  had  for  several  years  about  a  lease  at 
Norton." 

In  his  raillery  of  Vernon's  affected  metaphors  and  com- 
parisons, "his  similitudes  and  dissimilitudes  strangely  hooked 
in,  and  fetched  as  far  as  the  Antipodes,"  Barnard  observes, 
"  The  man  hath  also  a  strange  opinion  of  himself  that  he  is 
Dr.  Heylin  ;  and  because  he  writes  his  life,  that  he  hath  his 
natural  parts,  if  not  acquired.  The  soul  of  St.  Augustin 
(say  the  schools)  was  Pythagorically  transfused  into  the  corpse 
of  Aquinas ;  so  the  soul  of  Dr.  Heylin  into  a  narrow  soul. 
I  know  there  is  a  question  in  philosophy,  An  animce  sint 
cequales  ? — whether  souls  be  alike  ?  But  there's  a  difference 
between  the  spirits  of  Elijah  and  Elisha :  so  small  a  prophet 
with  so  great  an  one  !  " 

Dr.  Barnard  concludes  by  regretting  that  good  counsel 
came  now  unseasonably,  else  he  would  have  advised  the 
writer  to  have  transmitted  his  task  to  one  who  had  been  an 
ancient  friend  of  Dr.  Heylin,  rather  than  ambitiously  have 
assumed  it,  who  was  a  professed  stranger  to  him,  by  reason 
of  which  no  better  account  could  be  expected  from  him  than 
what  he  has  given.  He  hits  off  the  character  of  this  piece 
of  biography — "A  Life  to  the  half;  an  imperfect  creature, 


OF  'LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


Ill 


that  is  not  only  lame  (as  the  honest  bookseller  said),  bat 
wanteth  legs,  and  all  other  integral  parts  of  a  man ;  nay  the 
very  soul  that  should  animate  a  body  like  Dr.  Heylin.  So 
that  I  must  say  of  him  as  Plutarch  doth  of  Tib.  Gracchus, 
'  that  he  is  a  bold  undertaker  and  rash  talker  of  those  mat- 
ters he  does  not  understand.'  And  so  I  have  done  with  him, 
unless  he  creates  to  himself  and  me  a  future  trouble ! " 

Vernon  appears  to  have  slunk  away  from  the  duel.  The 
son  of  Heylin  stood  corrected  by  the  superior  Life  produced 
by  their  relative ;  the  learned  and  vivacious  Barnard  prob* 
ably  never  again  ventured  to  alter  and  improve  the  works  of 
an  author  kneeling  and  praying  for  corrections.  These 
bleating  lambs,  it  seems,  often  turn  out  roaring  lions ! 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 

The  "  Methode  pour  etudier  VHistoire"  by  the  Abbe 
Lenglet  du  Fresnoy,  is  a  master-key  to  all  the  locked-up 
treasures  of  ancient  and  modern  history,  and  to  the  more  se- 
cret stores  of  the  obscurer  memorialists  of  every  nation.  The 
history  of  this  work  and  its  author  are  equally  remarkable. 
The  man  was  a  sort  of  curiosity  in  human  nature,  as  his 
works  are  in  literature.  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy  is  not  a  writer 
merely  laborious  ;  without  genius,  he  still  has  a  hardy  origi- 
nality in  his  manner  of  writing  and  of  thinking;  and  his 
vast  and  restless  curiosity  fermenting  his  immense  book- 
knowledge,  with  a  freedom  verging  on  cynical  causticity,  led 
to  the  pursuit  of  uncommon  topics.  Even  the  prefaces  to  the 
works  which  he  edited  are  singularly  curious,  and  he  has 
usually  added  bibliotheques,  or  critical  catalogues  of  authors, 
which  we  may  still  consult  for  notices  on  the  writers  of  ro- 
mances— of  those  on  literary  subjects — on  alchymy,  or  the 
hermetic  philosophy;  of  those  who  have  written  on  appari- 
tions, visions,  &c. ;  an  historical  treatise  on  the  secret  of  con- 


112 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


fession,  &c. ;  besides  those  "  Pieces  Justificatives,"  which 
constitute  some  of  the  most  extraordinary  documents  in  the 
philosophy  of  history.  His  manner  of  writing  secured  him 
readers  even  among  the  unlearned ;  his  mordacity,  his  sar- 
casm, his  derision,  his  pregnant  interjections,  his  unguarded 
frankness,  and  often  his  strange  opinions,  contribute  to  his 
reader's  amusement  more  than  comports  with  his  graver 
tasks;  but  his  peculiarities  cannot  alter  the  value  of  his 
knowledge,  whatever  they  may  sometimes  detract  from  his 
opinions  ;  and  we  may  safely  admire  the  ingenuity,  without 
quarrelling  with  the  sincerity  of  the  writer,  who  having  com- 
posed a  work  on  U  Usage  des  Romans,  in  which  he  gaily 
impugned  the  authenticity  of  all  history,  to  prove  himself 
not  to  have  been  the  author,  ambi-dexterously  published  an- 
other of  V Histoire  justifiee  contre  les  Romans  ;  and  perhaps 
it  was  not  his  fault  that  the  attack  was  spirited,  and  the  justi- 
fication dull. 

This  "  Methode"  and  his  "Tablettes  Chronologiques,"  of 
nearly  forty  other  publications  are  the  only  ones  which  have 
outlived  their  writer;  volumes,  merely  curious,  are  exiled  to 
the  shelf  of  the  collector;  the  very  name  of  an  author 
merely  curious — that  shadow  of  a  shade — is  not  always  even 
preserved  by  a  dictionary-compiler  in  the  universal  charity 
of  his  alphabetical  mortuary. 

The  history  of  this  work  is  a  striking  instance  of  those 
imperfect  beginnings,  which  have  often  closed  in  the  most 
important  labours.  This  admirable  u  Methode  "  made  its  first 
meagre  appearance  in  two  volumes  in  1713.  It  was  soon 
reprinted  at  home  and  abroad,  and  translated  into  various 
languages.  In  1729  it  assumed  the  dignity  of  four  quartos  ; 
but  at  this  stage  it  encountered  the  vigilance  of  government, 
and  the  lacerating  hand  of  a  celebrated  censeur,  Gros  de 
Boze.  It  is  said,  that  from  a  personal  dislike  of  the  author, 
he  cancelled  one  hundred  and  fifty  pages  from  the  printed 
copy  submitted  to  his  censorship.  He  had  formerly  approved 
of  the  work,  and  had  quietly  passed  over  some  of  these  ob- 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FEESNOY. 


113 


noxious  passages :  it  is  certain  that  Gros  de  Boze,  in  a  dis- 
sertation on  the  Janus  of  the  ancients  in  this  work,  actually 
erased  a  high  commendation  of  himself,*  which  Lenglet  hud, 
with  unusual  courtesy,  bestowed  on  Gros  de  Boze  ;  for  as  a 
critic  he  is  most  penurious  of  panegyric,  and  there  is  always 
a  caustic  flavour  even  in  his  drops  of  honey.  This  censeur 
either  affected  to  disdain  the  commendation,  or  availed  him- 
self of  it  as  a  trick  of  policy.  This  was  a  trying  situation 
for  an  author,  now  proud  of  a  great  work,  and  who  himself 
partook  more  of  the  bull  than  of  the  lamb.  He  who  winced 
at  the  scratch  of  an  epithet,  beheld  his  perfect  limbs  bruised 
by  erasures  and  mutilated  by  cancels.  This  sort  of  troubles 
indeed  was  not  unusual  with  Lenglet.  He  had  occupied  his 
old  apartment  in  the  Bastile  so  often,  that  at  the  sight  of  the 
officer  who  was  in  the  habit  of  conducting  him  there,  Lenglet 
would  call  for  his  night-cap  and  snuff ;  and  finish  the  work 
he  had  then  in  hand  at  the  Bastile,  where,  he  told  Jordan, 
that  he  made  his  edition  of  Marot.  He  often  silently  resti- 
tuted an  epithet  or  a  sentence  which  had  been  condemned  by 
the  censeur,  at  the  risk  of  returning  once  more ;  but  in  the 
present  desperate  affair  he  took  his  revenge  by  collecting  the 
castrations  into  a  quarto  volume,  which  was  sold  clandes- 
tinely. I  find,  by  Jordan,  in  his  Voyage  Litteraire,  who 
visited  him,  that  it  was  his  pride  to  read  these  cancels  to  his 
friends,  who  generally,  but  secretly,  were  of  opinion  that  the 
decision  of  the  censeur  was  not  so  wrong  as  the  hardihood  of 
Lenglet  insisted  on.  All  this  increased  the  public  rumour, 
and  raised  the  price  of  the  cancels.  The  craft  and  mystery 
of  authorship  was  practised  by  Lenglet  to  perfection ;  and  he 
often  exulted,  not  only  in  the  subterfuges  by  which  he  parried 
his  censeurs,  but  in  his  bargains  with  his  booksellers,  who 
were  equally  desirous  to  possess,  while  they  half-feared  to 
enjoy,  his  uncertain  or  his  perilous  copyrights.  When  the 
unique  copy  of  the  Methode,  in  its  pristine  state,  before  it 
had  suffered  any  dilapidations,  made  its  appearance  at  the 

*  This  fact  appears  in  the  account  of  the  minuter  erasures. 
VOL.  iv.  8 


114 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


sale  of  the  curious  library  of  the  censeur  Gros  de  Boze,  it 
provoked  a  Roxburgh  competition,  where  the  collectors, 
eagerly  outbidding  each  other,  the  price  of  this  uncastrated 
copy  reached  to  1500  livres ;  an  event  more  extraordinary 
in  the  history  of  French  bibliography  than  in  our  own. 
The  curious  may  now  find  all  these  cancel  sheets,  or  castra- 
tions, preserved  in  one  of  those  works  of  literary  history,  to 
which  the  Germans  have  contributed  more  largely  than 
other  European  nations,  and  I  have  discovered  that  even  the 
erasures,  or  bruises,  are  amply  furnished  in  another  biblio- 
graphical record.*  , 

This  Methode,  after  several  later  editions,  was  still  en- 
larging itself  by  fresh  supplements  ;  and  having  been  trans- 
lated by  men  of  letters  in  Europe,  by  Coleti  in  Italy,  by 
Mencken  in  Germany,  and  by  Dr.  Rawlinson  in  England, 
these  translators  have  enriched  their  own  editions  by  more 
copious  articles,  designed  for  their  respective  nations.  The 
sagacity  of  the  original  writer  now  renovated  his  work  by 
the  infusions  of  his  translators ;  like  old  ^Eson,  it  had  its 
veins  filled  with  green  juices ;  and  thus  his  old  work  was 
always  undergoing  the  magic  process  of  rejuvenescence. f 

The  personal  character  of  our  author  was  as  singular  as 
many  of  the  uncommon  topics  which  engaged  his  inquiries; 
these  we  might  conclude  had  originated  in  mere  eccentricity, 
or  were  chosen  at  random.    But  Lenglet  has  shown  no  defi- 

*  The  castrations  are  in  Beyeri  Memorial  historico-critica  Librorum  vario- 
rum, p.  166.  The  bruises  are  carefully  noted  in  the  Catalogue  of  the  Duke 
de  la  Valliere,  4467.  Those  who. are  curious  in  such  singularities  will  be 
gratified  by  the  extraordinary  opinions  and  results  in  Beyer;  and  which 
after  all  were  purloined  from  a  manuscript  "Abridgment  of  Universal 
History,"  which  was  drawn  up  by  Count  de  Boulainvilliers,  and  more 
adroitly  than  delicately  inserted  by  Lenglet  in  his  own  work.  The  orig- 
inal manuscript  exists  in  various  copies,  which  were  afterwards  dis- 
covered. The  minuter  corrections,  in  the  Duke  de  la  Valliere's  catalogue, 
furnish  a  most  enlivening  article  in  the  dryness  of  bibliography. 

t  The  last  edition,  enlarged  by  Drouet,  is  in  fifteen  volumes,  but  is  not 
later  than  1772.  It  is  still  an  inestimable  manual  for  the  historical 
student,  as  well  as  his  Tablettes  Chronologiques. 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


115 


ciency  of  judgment  in  several  works  of  acknowledged  utility; 
and  his  critical  opinions,  his  last  editor  has  shown,  have,  foi 
the  greater  part,  been  sanctioned  by  the  public  voice.  It  is 
curious  to  observe  how  the  first  direction  which  the  mind  of 
a  hardy  inquirer  may  take,  will  often  account  for  that  variety 
of  uncommon  topics  he  delights  in,  and  which,  on  a  closer 
examination,  may  be  found  to  bear  an  invisible  connection 
with  some  preceding  inquiry.  As  there  is  an  association  of 
ideas,  so  in  literary  history  there  is  an  association  of  re- 
search ;  and  a  very  judicious  writer  may  thus  be  impelled 
to  compose  on  subjects  which  may  be  deemed  strange  or  in- 
judicious. 

This  observation  may  be  illustrated  by  the  literary  history 
of  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy.  He  opened  his  career  by  addressing 
a  letter  and  a  tract  to  the  Sorbonne,  on  the  extraordinary 
affair  of  Maria  d'Agreda,  abbess  of  the  nunnery  of  the  Im- 
maculate Conception  in  Spain,  whose  mystical  Life  of  the 
Virgin,  published  on  the  decease  of  the  abbess,  and  which 
was  received  with  such  rapture  in  Spain,  had  just  appeared 
at  Paris,  where  it  excited  the  murmurs  of  the  pious,  and  the 
inquiries  of  the  curious.  This  mystical  Life  was  declared 
to  be  founded  on  apparitions  and  revelations  experienced  by 
the  abbess.  Lenglet  proved,  or  asserted,  that  the  abbess  was 
not  the  writer  of  this  pretended  Life,  though  the  manuscript 
existed  in  her  handwriting ;  and  secondly,  that  the  appari- 
tions and  revelations  recorded  were  against  all  the  rules  of 
apparitions  and  revelations  which  he  had  painfully  dis- 
covered. The  affair  was  of  a  delicate  nature.  The  writer 
was  young  and  incredulous ;  a  grey-beard,  more  deeply 
versed  in  theology,  replied,  and  the  Sorbonnists  silenced  our 
philosopher  in  embryo. 

Lenglet  confined  these  researches  to  his  portfolio ;  and  so 
long  a  period  as  fifty-five  years  had  elapsed  before  they  saw 
the  light.  It  was  when  Calmet  published  his  Dissertations 
on  Apparitions,  that  the  subject  provoked  Lenglet  to  return 
to  his  forsaken  researches.    He  now  published  all  he  had 


116 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


formerly  composed  on  the  affair  of  Maria  d'Agreda,  and  two 
other  works ;  the  one,  "  Traite  historique  et  dogmatique  sur 
les  Apparitions,  les  Visions,  et  les  Revelations  particulieres," 
in  two  volumes ;  and  "  Recueil  de  Dissertations  anciennes  et 
nouvelles,  sur  les  Apparitions,  fyc,"  with  a  catalogue  of 
authors  on  this  subject,  in  four  volumes.  When  he  edited 
the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  in  compiling  the  glossary  of  this 
ancient  poem,  it  led  him  to  reprint  many  of  the  earliest 
French  poets ;  to  give  an  enlarged  edition  of  the  Arrets 
oV Amour,  that  work  of  love  and  chivalry,  in  which  his  fancy 
was  now  so  deeply  imbedded ;  while  the  subject  of  Romance 
itself  naturally  led  to  the  taste  of  romantic  productions  which 
appeared  in  "  X'  Usage  des  Romans,"  and  its  accompanying 
copious  nomenclature  of  all  romances  and  romance-writers, 
ancient  and  modern.  Our  vivacious  Abbe  had  been  be- 
wildered by  his  delight  in  the  works  of  a  chemical  philo- 
sopher ;  and  though  he  did  not  believe  in  the  existence  of 
apparitions,  and  certainly  was  more  than  a  skeptic  in  history, 
yet  it  is  certain  that  the  "  grande  ouvre  "  was  an  article  in 
his  creed ;  it  would  have  ruined  him  in  experiments,  if  he 
had  been  rich  enough  to  have  been  ruined.  It  altered  his 
health  ;  and  the  most  important  result  of  his  chemical  studies 
appears  to  have  been  the  invention  of  a  syrup,  in  which  he 
had  great  confidence ;  but  its  trial  blew  him  up  into  a  tym- 
pany, from  which  he  was  only  relieved  by  having  recourse  to 
a  drug,  also  of  his  own  discovery,  which,  in  counteracting  the 
syrup,  reduced  him  to  an  alarming  state  of  atrophy.  But 
the  mischances  of  the  historian  do  not  enter  into  his  history : 
and  our  curiosity  must  be  still  eager  to  open  Lenglet's 
"  Histoire  de  la  Philosophic  Hermetique,"  accompanied  by  a 
catalogue  of  the  writers  in  this  mysterious  science,  in  two 
volumes :  as  well  as  his  enlarged  edition  of  the  works  of  a 
great  Paracelsian,  Nicholas  le  Fevre.  This  philosopher  was 
appointed  by  Charles  the  Second  superintendent  over  the 
royal  laboratory  at  St.  James's :  he  was  also  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Society,  and  the  friend  of  Boyle,  to  whom  he  com- 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


117 


municated  the  secret  of  infusing  young  blood  into  old  veins, 
with  a  notion  that  he  could  renovate  that  which  admits  of  no 
second  creation.*  Such  was  the  origin  of  Du  Fresnoy's 
active  curiosity  on  a  variety  of  singular  topics,  the  germs  of 
which  may  be  traced  to  three  or  four  of  our  author's  princi- 
pal works. 

Our  Abbe  promised  to  write  his  own  life,  and  his  pug- 
nacious vivacity,  and  hardy  frankness,  would  have  seasoned 
a  piece  of  autobiography ;  an  amateur  has,  however,  written 
it  in  the  style  which  amateurs  like,  with  all  the  truth  he 
could  discover,  enlivened  by  some  secret  history,  writing  the 
life  of  Lenglet  with  the  very  spirit  of  Lenglet :  it  is  a  mask 
taken  from  the  very  features  of  the  man,  not  the  insipid  wax- 
work of  an  hyperbolical  eloge-maker.f 

Although  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy  commenced  in  early  life  his 
career  as  a  man  of  letters,  he  was  at  first  engaged  in  the  great 
chase  of  political  adventure  ;  and  some  striking  facts  are 
recorded,  which  show  his  successful  activity.  Michault  de- 
scribes his  occupations  by  a  paraphrastical  delicacy  of  lan- 
guage, which  an  Englishman  might  not  have  so  happily 
composed.    The  Minister  for  foreign  affairs,  the  Marquis  de 

*  The  Dictionnaire  Historique,  1789,  in  their  article  Nich.  Le  Fevre, 
notices  the  third  edition  of  his  "  Course  of  Chemistry,"  that  of  1664,  in 
two  volumes:  but  the  present  one  of  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy's  is  more  recent, 
1751,  enlarged  into  five  volumes,  two  of  which  contain  his  own  additions. 
I  have  never  met  with  this  edition,  and  it  is  wanting  at  the  British 
"Museum.  Le  Fevre  published  a  tract  on  the  great  cordial  of  Sir  Walter 
Eawleigh,  which  may  be  curious. 

t  This  anonymous  work  of  "  Mdmoires  de  Monsieur  l'Abbe"  Lenglet  du 
Fresnoy,"  although  the  dedication  is  signed  G.  P.,  is  written  by  Michault, 
of  Dijon,  as  a  presentation  copy  to  Count  de  Vienne  in  my  possession 
proves.  Michault  is  the  writer  of  two  volumes  of  agreeable  "  Melanges 
Historiques  et  Philologiques;  "  and  the  present  is  a  very  curious  piece  of 
literary  history.  The  Dictionnaire  Historique  has  compiled  the  article  of 
Lenglet  entirely  from  this  work ;  but  the  Journal  des  Sgavans  was  too  ascetic 
in  this  opinion.  Etoit-ce  la  peine  defaire  un  livre  pour  apprendre  au  public 
gu'un  homme  de  lettres  fut  espion,  escroc,  bizarre,  fougueux,cynique,  incapable 
d'amitie,  de  decence,  de  soumission  aux  Mx?  cfc.  Yet  they  do  not  pretend 
that  the  bibliography  of  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy  is  at  all  deficient  in  curiosity. 


118 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


Torcy,  sent  Lenglet  to  Lille,  where  the  court  of  the  Elector 
of  Cologne  was  then  held  :  "  He  had  particular  orders  to 
watch  that  the  two  ministers  of  the  elector  should  do  nothing 
prejudicial  to  the  king's  affairs."  He  seems,  however,  to 
have  watched  many  other  persons,  and  detected  many  other 
things.  He  discovered  a  captain,  who  agreed  to  open  the 
gates  of  Mons  to  Marlborough,  for  100,000  piastres  ;  the 
captain  was  arrested  on  the  parade,  the  letter  of  Marlborough 
was  found  in  his  pocket,  and  the  traitor  was  broken  on  the 
wheel.  Lenglet  denounced  a  foreign  general  in  the  French 
service,  and  the  event  warranted  the  prediction.  His  most 
important  discovery  was  that  of  the  famous  conspiracy  of 
Prince  Cellamar,  one  of  the  chimerical  plots  of  Alberoni ;  to 
the  honour  of  Lenglet,  he  would  not  engage  in  its  detection, 
unless  the  minister  promised  that  no  blood  should  be  shed. 
These  successful  incidents  in  the  life  of  an  honourable  spy 
were  rewarded  with  a  moderate  pension. — Lenglet  must 
have  been  no  vulgar  intriguer ;  he  was  not  only  perpetually 
confined  by  his  very  patrons  when  he  resided  at  home,  for 
the  freedom  of  his  pen,  but  I  find  him  early  imprisoned  in 
the  citadel  of  Strasburgh  for  six  months  :  it  is  said  for  pur- 
loining some  curious  books  from  the  library  of  the  Abbe 
Bignon,  of  which  he  had  the  care.  It  is  certain  that  he  knew 
the  value  of  the  scarcest  works,  and  was  one  of  those  lovers 
of  bibliography  who  trade  at  times  in  costly  rarities.  At  Vi- 
enna he  became  intimately  acquainted  with  the  poet  Rousseau, 
and  Prince  Eugene.  The  prince,  however,  who  suspected 
the  character  of  our  author,  long  avoided  him.  Lenglet  in- 
sinuated himself  into  the  favour  of  the  prince's  librarian  ;  and 
such  was  his  bibliographical  skill,  that  this  acquaintance  ended 
in  Prince  Eugene  laying  aside  his  political  dread,  and  pre- 
ferring the  advice  of  Lenglet  to  his  librarian's,  to  enrich  his 
magnificent  library.  When  the  motive  of  Lenglet's  residence 
at  Vienna  became  more  and  more  suspected,  Rousseau  was 
employed  to  watch  him  ;  and  not  yet  having  quarrelled  with 
his  brother  spy,  he  could  only  report  that  the  Abbe  Lenglet 


OF  LENGLET  DU  FRESNOY. 


119 


was  every  morning  occupied  in  working  on  his  "  Tablettes 
Chronologiques,"  a  work  not  worthy  of  alarming  the  govern- 
ment ;  that  he  spent  his  evenings  at  a  violin  player's  married 
to  a  French  woman,  and  returned  home  at  eleven.  As  soon 
as  our  historian  had  discovered  that  the  poet  was  a  brother 
spy  and  news-monger  on  the  side  of  Prince  Eugene,  their 
reciprocal  civilities  cooled.  Lenglet  now  imagined  that  he 
owed  his  six  months'  retirement  in  the  citadel  of  Strasburgh 
to  the  secret  officiousness  of  Rousseau  :  each  grew  suspicious 
of  the  other's  fidelity  ;  and  spies  are  like  lovers,  for  their  mu- 
tual jealousies  settled  into  the  most  inveterate  hatred.  One 
of  the  most  defamatory  libels  is  Lenglet's  intended  dedication 
of  his  edition  of  Marot  to  Rousseau,  which  being  forced  to 
suppress  in  Holland,  by  order  of  the  States-general ;  at  Brus- 
sels, by  the  intervention  of  the  Duke  of  Aremberg ;  and  by 
every  means  the  friends  of  the  unfortunate  Rousseau  could 
contrive;  was  however  many  years  afterwards  at  length 
subjoined  by  Lenglet  to  the  first  volume  of  his  work  on 
Romances  ;  where  an  ordinary  reader  may  wonder  at  its 
appearance  unconnected  with  any  part  of  the  work.  In  this 
dedication,  or  "  Eloge  historique,"  he  often  addresses  "  Mon 
cher  Rousseau,"  but  the  irony  is  not  delicate,  and  the  calumny 
is  heavy.  Rousseau  lay  too  open  to  the  unlicensed  causticity 
of  his  accuser.  The  poet  was  then  expatriated  from  France 
for  a  false  accusation  against  Saurin,  in  attempting  to  fix  on 
him  those  criminal  couplets,  which  so  long  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  literary  world  in  France,  and  of  which  Rousseau  was 
generally  supposed  to  be  the  writer;  but  of  which  on  his 
death-bed  he  solemnly  protested  that  he  was  guiltless.  The 
coup-de-grace  is  given  to  the  poet,  stretched  on  this  rack  of 
invective,  by  just  accusations  on  account  of  those  infamous 
epigrams,  which  appear  in  some  editions  of  that  poet's  works  ; 
a  lesson  for  a  poet,  if  poets  would  be  lessoned,  who  indulge 
their  imagination  at  the  cost  of  their  happiness,  and  seem  tc 
invent  crimes,  as  if  they  themselves  wTere  criminals. 

But  to  return  to  our  Lenglet.    Had  he  composed  his  own 


120 


THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TREVOUX. 


life,  it  would  have  offered  a  sketch  of  political  servitude  and 
political  adventure,  in  a  man  too  intractable  for  the  one,  and 
too  literary  for  the  other.  Yet  to  the  honour  of  his  capacity, 
we  must  observe  that  he  might  have  chosen  his  patrons, 
would  he  have  submitted  to  patronage.  Prince  Eugene  at 
Vienna  ;  Cardinal  Pa-sionei  at  Rome ;  or  Mons.  Le  Blanc, 
the  French  minister,  would  have  held  him  on  his  own  terms. 
But  "  Liberty  and  my  books  !  "  was  the  secret  ejaculation  of 
Lenglet ;  and  from  that  moment  all  things  in  life  were  sacri- 
ficed to  a  jealous  spirit  of  independence,  which  broke  out  in 
his  actions  as  well  as  in  his  writings ;  and  a  passion  for  study 
for  ever  crushed  the  worm  of  ambition. 

He  was  as  singular  in  his  conversation,  which,  says  Jordan, 
was  extremely  agreeable  to  a  foreigner,  for  he  delivered  him- 
self without  reserve  on  all  things,  and  on  all  persons,  seasoned 
with  secret  and  literary  anecdotes.  He  refused  all  the  con- 
veniences offered  by  an  opulent  sister,  that  he  might  not 
endure  the  restraint  of  a  settled  dinner-hour.  He  lived  to 
his  eightieth  year,  still  busied,  and  then  died  by  one  of  those 
grievous  chances,  to  which  aged  men  of  letters  are  liable : 
our  caustic  critic  slumbered  over  some  modern  work,  and, 
falling  into  the  fire,  was  burnt  to  death.  Many  characteristic 
anecdotes  of  the  Abbe  Lenglet  have  been  preserved  in  the 
Dictionnaire  Historique,  but  I  shall  not  repeat  what  is  of 
easy  recurrence. 


THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TREVOUX. 

A  learned  friend,  in  his  very  agreeable  "  Trimestre,  or  a 
Three  Months'  Journey  in  France  and  Switzerland,"  could 
not  pass  through  the  small  town  of  Trevoux  without  a  liter- 
ary association  of  ideas  which  should  accompany  every  man 
of  letters  in  his  tours,  abroad  or  at  home.  A  mind  well  in- 
formed cannot  travel  without  discovering  that  there  are  ob- 


THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TREVOUX. 


121 


jects  constantly  presenting  themselves,  which  suggest  literary, 
historical,  and  moral  facts.  My  friend  writes,  "  As  you  pro- 
ceed nearer  to  Lyons  you  stop  to  dine  at  Trevoux,  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Saone.  On  a  sloping  hill,  down  to  the  water- 
side, rises  an  amphitheatre,  crowned  with  an  ancient  Gothic 
castle,  in  venerable  ruin ;  under  it  is  the  small  town  of  Tre- 
voux, well  known  for  its  Journal  and  Dictionary,  which  latter 
is  almost  an  encyclopaedia,  as  there  are  few  things  of  which 
something  is  not  said  in  that  most  valuable  compilation,  and 
the  whole  was  printed  at  Trevoux.  The  knowledge  of  tins 
circumstance  greatly  enhances  the  delight  of  any  visitor  who 
has  consulted  the  book,  and  is  acquainted  with  its  merit ;  and 
must  add  much  to  his  local  pleasures." 

A  work  from  which  every  man  of  letters  may  be  continu- 
ally deriving  such  varied  knowledge,  and  which  is  little 
known  but  to  the  most  curious  readers,  claims  a  place  in 
these  volumes ;  nor  is  the  history  of  the  work  itself  without 
interest.  Eight  large  folios,  each  consisting  of  a  thousand 
closely  printed  pages,  stand  like  a  vast  mountain,  of  which, 
before  we  climb,  we  may  be  anxious  to  learn  the  security  of 
the  passage.  The  history  of  dictionaries  is  the  most  mutable 
of  all  histories  ;  it  is  a  picture  of  the  inconstancy  of  the 
knowledge  of  man  ;  the  learning  of  one  generation  passes 
away  with  another ;  and  a  dictionary  of  this  kind  is  always 
to  be  repaired,  to  be  rescinded,  and  to  be  enlarged. 

The  small  town  of  Trevoux  gave  its  name  to  an  excellent 
literary  journal,  long  conducted  by  the  Jesuits,  and  to  this 
dictionary — as  Edinburgh  has  to  its  Critical  Review  and 
Annual  Register,  &c.  It  first  came  to  be  distinguished  as  a 
literary  town  from  the  Due  du  Maine,  as  prince  sovereign  of 
Dombes,  transferring  to  this  little  town  of  Trevoux  not  only 
his  parliament  and  other  public  institutions,  but  also  estab- 
lishing a  magnificent  printing-house,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century.  The  duke,  probably  to  keep  his  printers  in 
constant  employ,  instituted  the  "  Journal  de  Trevoux  ;  "  and 
this,  perhaps,  greatly  tended  to  bring  the  printing-house  into 


122 


THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TEEVOUX. 


notice  ;  so  that  it  became  a  favourite  with  many  good  writers, 
who  appear  to  have  had  no  other  connection  with  the  place ; 
and  this  dictionary  borrowed  its  first  title,  which  it  always 
preserved,  merely  from  the  place  where  it  was  printed. 
Both  the  journal  and  the  dictionary  were,  however,  consigned 
to  the  cares  of  some  learned  Jesuits  ;  and  perhaps  the  place 
always  indicated  the  principles  of  the  writers,  of  whom  none 
were  more  eminent  for  elegant  literature  than  the  Jesuits. 

The  first  edition  of  this  dictionary  sprung  from  the  spirit 
of  rivalry,  occasioned  by  a  French  dictionary  published  in 
Holland,  by  the  protestant  Basnage  de  Beauval.  The  duke 
set  his  Jesuits  hastily  to  work;  who,  after  a  pompous  an- 
nouncement that  this  dictionary  was  formed  on  a  plan  sug- 
gested by  their  patron,  did  little  more  than  pillage  Furetiere, 
and  rummage  Basnage,  and  produced  three  new  folios  with- 
out any  novelties ;  they  pleased  the  Due  du  Maine,  and  no 
one  else.  This  was  in  1704.  Twenty  years  after,  it  was 
republished  and  improved  ;  and  editions  increasing,  the  vol- 
umes succeeded  each  other,  till  it  reached  to  its  present  mag- 
nitude and  value  in  eight  large  folios,  in  1771,  the  only  edi- 
tion now  esteemed.  Many  of  the  names  of  the  contributors 
to  this  excellent  collection  of  words  and  things,  the  industry 
of  Monsieur  Barbier  has  revealed  in  his  "  Dictionnaire  des 
Anonymes,"  art.  10782.  The  work,  in  the  progress  of  a 
century,  evidently  became  a  favourite  receptacle  with  men 
of  letters  in  France,  who  eagerly  contributed  the  smallest  or 
largest  articles  with  a  zeal  honourable  to  literature  and  most 
useful  to  the  public.  They  made  this  dictionary  their  com- 
monplace book  for  all  their  curious  acquisitions  ;  every  one 
competent  to  write  a  short  article  preserving  an  important 
fact,  did  not  aspire  to  compile  the  dictionary,  or  even  an  en- 
tire article  in  it ;  but  it  was  a  treasury  in  which  such  mites 
collected  together  formed  its  wealth ;  and  all  the  literati  may 
be  said  to  have  engaged  in  perfecting  these  volumes  during  a 
century.  In  this  manner,  from  the  humble  beginnings  of 
three  volumes,  in  winch  the  plagiary  much  more  than  the 


THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TREVOUX. 


123 


contributor  was  visible,  eight  were  at  length  built  up  with 
more  durable  materials,  and  which  claim  the  attention  and 
the  gratitude  of  the  student. 

The  work,  it  appears,  interested  the  government  itself,  as 
a  national  concern,  from  the  tenor  of  the  following  anecdotes. 

Most  of  the  minor  contributors  to  this  great  collection  were 
satisfied  to  remain  anonymous ;  but  as  might  be  expected 
among  such  a  number,  sometimes  a  contributor  was  anxious 
to  be  known  to  his  circle ;  and  did  not  like  this  penitential 
abstinence  of  fame.  An  anecdote  recorded  of  one  of  this 
class  will  amuse :  a  Monsieur  Lautour  du  Chatel,  avocat  au 
parlement  de  Normandie,  voluntarily  devoted  his  studious 
hours  to  improve  this  work,  and  furnished  nearly  three  thou- 
sand articles  to  the  supplement  of  the  edition  of  1752.  This 
ardent  scholar  had  had  a  lively  quarrel  thirty  years  before 
with  the  first  authors  of  the  dictionary.  He  had  sent  them 
one  thousand  three  hundred  articles,  on  condition  that  the 
donor  should  be  handsomely  thanked  in  the  preface  of  the 
new  edition,  and  further  receive  a  copy  en  grand  papier. 
They  were  accepted.  The  conductors  of  the  new  edition,  in 
1721,  forgot  all  the  promises — nor  thanks,  nor  copy !  Our 
learned  avocat,  who  was  a  little  irritable,  as  his  nephew  who 
wrote  his  life  acknowledges,  as  soon  as  the  great  work  ap- 
peared, astonished,  like  Dennis,  that  "  they  were  rattling  his 
own  thunder,"  without  saying  a  word,  quits  his  country  town, 
and  ventures,  half  dead  with  sickness  and  indignation,  on  an 
expedition  to  Paris,  to  make  his  complaint  to  the  chancellor ; 
and  the  work  was  deemed  of  that  importance  in  the  eye  of 
government,  and  so  zealous  a  contributor  was  considered  to 
have  such  an  honourable  claim,  that  the  chancellor  ordered, 
first,  that  a  copy  on  large  paper  should  be  immediately  de- 
livered to  Monsieur  Lautour,  richly  bound  and  free  of  car- 
riage ;  and  secondly,  as  a  reparation  of  the  unperformed 
promise,  and  an  acknowledgment  of  gratitude,  the  omission 
of  thanks  should  be  inserted  and  explained  in  the  three  great 
literary  journals  of  France ;  a  curious  instance,  among  others, 


124 


THE  DICTIONARY  OF  TEEVOUX. 


of  the  French  government  often  mediating,  when  difficulties 
occurred  in  great  literary  undertakings,  and  considering  not 
lightly  the  claims  and  the  honours  of  men  of  letters. 

Another  proof,  indeed,  of  the  same  kind,  concerning  the 
present  work,  occurred  after  the  edition  of  1752.  One 
Jamet  l'aine,  who  had  with  others  been  usefully  employed 
on  this  edition,  addressed  a  proposal  to  government  for  an 
improved  one,  dated  from  the  Bastile.  He  proposed  that 
the  government  should  choose  a  learned  person,  accustomed 
to  the  labour  of  the  researches  such  a  work  requires ;  and  he 
calculated,  that  if  supplied  with  three  amanuenses,  such  an 
editor  would  accomplish  his  task  in  about  ten  or  twelve 
years,  the  produce  of  the  edition  would  soon  repay  all  the 
expenses  and  capital  advanced.  This  literary  projector  did 
not  wish  to  remain  idle  in  the  Bastile.  Fifteen  years  after- 
wards the  last  improved  edition  appeared,  published  by  the 
associated  booksellers  of  Paris. 

As  for  the  work  itself,  it  partakes  of  the  character  of  our 
Encyclopaedias ;  but  in  this  respect  it  cannot  be  safely  con- 
sulted, for  widely  has  science  enlarged  its  domains  and  cor- 
rected its  errors  since  1771.  But  it  is  precious  as  a  vast 
collection  of  ancient  and  modern  learning,  particularly  in 
that  sort  of  knowledge  which  we  usually  term  antiquarian 
and  philological.  It  is  not  merely  a  grammatical,  scientific, 
and  technical  dictionary,  but  it  is  replete  with  divinity,  law, 
moral  philosophy,  critical  and  historical  learning,  and  abounds 
with  innumerable  miscellaneous  curiosities.  It  would  be 
difficult,  whatever  may  be  the  subject  of  inquiry,  to  open  it, 
without  the  gratification  of  some  knowledge  neither  obvious 
nor  trivial.  I  heard  a  man  of  great  learning  declare,  that 
whenever  he  could  not  recollect  his  knowledge  he  opened 
Hoffman's  Lexicon  Universale  Historicum,  where  he  was 
sure  to  find  what  he  had  lost.  The  works  are  similar;  and 
valuable  as  are  the  German's  four  folios,  the  eight  of  the 
Frenchman  may  safely  be  recommended  as  their  substitute, 
or  their  supplement.    As  a  Dictionary  of  the  French  Lan- 


QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY.  125 


guage  it  bears  a  peculiar  feature,  which  has  been  presumptu- 
ously dropped  in  the  Dictionnaire  de  PAcademie ;  the  last 
invents  phrases  to  explain  words,  which  therefore  have  no 
other  authority  than  the  writer  himself!  this  of  Trevoux  is 
furnished,  not  only  with  mere  authorities,  but  also  with  quo- 
tations from  the  classical  French  writers — an  improvement 
which  was  probably  suggested  by  the  English  Dictionary  of 
Johnson.    One  nation  improves  by  another. 


QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY. 

It  is,  perhaps,  somewhat  mortifying  in  our  literary  re- 
searches to  discover  that  our  own  literature  has  been  only 
known  to  the  other  nations  of  Europe  comparatively  within 
recent  times.  We  have  at  length  triumphed  over  our  con- 
tinental rivals  in  the  noble  struggles  of  genius,  and  our 
authors  now  see  their  works  printed  even  at  foreign  presses, 
while  we  are  furnishing  with  our  gratuitous  labours  nearly 
the  whole  literature  of  a  new  empire ;  yet  so  late  as  in  the 
reign  of  Anne,  our  poets  were  only  known  by  the  Latin 
versifiers  of  the  "  Musse  Anglicanas ; "  and  when  Boileau 
was  told  of  the  public  funeral  of  Dryden,  he  was  pleased 
with  the  national  honours  bestowed  on  genius,  but  he  de- 
clared that  he  never  heard  of  his  name  before.  This  great 
legislator  of  Parnassus  has  never  alluded  to  one  of  our  own 
poets,  so  insular  then  was  our  literary  glory !  The  most 
remarkable  fact,  or  perhaps  assertion,  I  have  met  with,  of 
the  little  knowledge  which  the  Continent  had  of  our  writers, 
is  a  French  translation  of  Bishop  Hall's  "  Characters  of  Vir- 
tues and  Vices."  It  is  a  duodecimo,  printed  at  Paris,  of  109 
pages,  1610,  with  this  title,  Characteres  de  Vertus  et  de 
Vices  ;  tires  de  VAnglois  de  M.  Josef  Hall.  In  a  dedication 
to  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  the  translator  informs  his  lordship 
that  "ce  livre  est  la  premiere  traduction  de  1' Anglois  jamai s 


12G       QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY. 


imprimee  en  aucun  vulgaire  " — the  first  translation  from  the 
English  ever  printed  in  any  modern  language  !  Whether 
the  translator  is  a  bold  liar,  or  an  ignorant  blunderer,  re- 
mains to  be  ascertained ;  at  all  events  it  is  a  humiliating: 
demonstration  of  the  small  progress  which  our  home  literature 
had  made  abroad  in  1610  ! 

I  come  now  to  notice  a  contemporary  writer,  professedly 
writing  the  history  of  our  Poetry,  of  which  his  knowledge 
will  open  to  us  as  we  proceed  with  our  enlightened  and  ama- 
teur historian. 

Father  Quadrio's  Delia  Storia  e  deW  ragione  <f  ogni  Poe- 
sia, — is  a  gigantic  work,  which  could  only  have  been  pro- 
jected and  persevered  in  by  some  hypochondriac  monk,  who, 
to  get  rid  of  the  ennui  of  life,  could  discover  no  pleasanter 
way  than  to  bury  himself  alive  in  seven  monstrous  closely- 
printed  quartos,  and  every  day  be  compiling  something  on  a 
subject  which  he  did  not  understand.  Fortunately  for  Father 
Quadrio,  without  taste  to  feel,  and  discernment  to  decide, 
nothing  occurred  in  this  progress  of  literary  history  and 
criticism  to  abridge  his  volumes  and  his  amusements ;  and 
with  diligence  and  erudition  unparalleled,  he  has  here  built 
up  a  receptacle  for  his  immense,  curious,  and  trifling  knowl- 
edge on  the  poetry  of  every  nation.  Quadrio  is  among  that 
class  of  authors  whom  we  receive  with  more  gratitude  than 
pleasure,  fly  to  sometimes  to  quote,  but  never  linger  to  read ; 
and  fix  on  our  shelves,  but  seldom  have  in  our  hands. 

I  have  been  much  mortified,  in  looking  over  this  volumi- 
nous compiler,  to  discover,  although  he  wrote  so  late  as  about 
1750,  how  little  the  history  of  English  poetry  was  known  to 
foreigners.  It  is  assuredly  our  own  fault.  We  have  too 
long  neglected  the  bibliography  and  the  literary  history  of 
our  own  country.  Italy,  Spain,  and  France,  have  enjoyed 
eminent  bibliographers — we  have  none  to  rival  them.  Italy 
may  justly  glory  in  her  Tiraboschi  and  her  Mazzuchelli ; 
Spain  in  the  Bibliothecas  of  Nicholas  Antonio  ;  and  France, 
so  rich  in  bibliographical  treasures,  affords  models  to  every 


QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY.  127 


literary  nation  of  every  species  of  literary  history.  With  us, 
the  partial  labour  of  the  hermit  Anthony  for  the  Oxford 
writers,  compiled  before  philosophical  criticism  existed  in  the 
nation ;  and  Warton's  History  of  Poetry,  which  was  left 
unfinished  at  its  most  critical  period,  when  that  delightful 
antiquary  of  taste  had  just  touched  the  threshold  of  his  Para- 
dise— these  are  the  sole  great  labours  to  which  foreigners 
might  resort,  but  these  will  not  be  found  of  much  use  to 
them.  The  neglect  of  our  own  literary  history  has,  there- 
fore, occasioned  the  errors,  sometimes  very  ridiculous  ones, 
of  foreign  writers  respecting  our  authors.  Even  the  lively 
Chaudon,  in  his  "  Dictionnaire  Hi^torique,"  gives  the  most 
extraordinary  accounts  of  most  of  the  English  writers. 
"Without  an  English  guide  to  attend  such  weary  travellers, 
they  have  too  often  been  deceived  by  the  mirages  of  our 
literature.  They  have  given  blundering  accounts  of  works 
which  do  exist,  and  chronicled  others  which  never  did  exist ; 
and  have  often  made  up  the  personal  history  of  our  authors, 
by  confounding  two  or  three  into  one.  Chaudon,  mentioning 
Dryden's  tragedies,  observes,  that  Atterbury  translated  two 
into  Latin  verse,  entitled  Achitophel  and  Absalom!* 

Of  all  these  foreign  authors,  none  has  more  egregiously 
failed  than  this  good  Father  Quadrio.  In  this  universal  his- 
tory of  poetry,  I  was  curious  to  observe  what  sort  of  figure 
we  made ;  and  whether  the  fertile  genius  of  our  original 
poets  had  struck  the  foreign  critic  with  admiration,  or  with 
critical  censure.  But  little  was  our  English  poetry  known 
to  its  universal  historian.  In  the  chapter  on  those  who  have 
cultivated  "  la  melica  poesia  in  propria  lingua  tra,  Tedeschi, 
Fiamminghi  e  Ingles!,'*  f  we  find  the  following  list  of  English 
poets. 

"  Of  John  Gower ;  whose  rhymes  and  verses  are  preserved 

*  Even  recently,  il  Cavaliere  Onofrio  Boni,  in  his  Eloge  of  Lanzi,  in 
naming  the  three  Augustan  periods  of  modern  literature,  fixes  them,  for 
the  Italians,  under  Leo  the  Tenth;  for  the  French,  under  Louis  the  Four 
tenth,  or  the  Great;  and  for  the  English,  under  Charles  the  Second! 

f  Quadrio,  vol.  ii.  p.  416. 


128 


QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY. 


in  manuscript  in  the  college  of  the  most  Holy  Trinity,  in 
Cambridge. 

"  Arthur  Kelton,  flourished  in  1548,  a  skilful  English 
poet :  he  composed  various  poems  in  English ;  also  he  lauds 
the  Cambrians  and  their  genealogy. 

"  The  works  of  William  Wycherly,  in  English  prose  and 
verse." 

These  were  the  only  English  poets  whom  Quadrio  at  first 
could  muster  together !  In  his  subsequent  additions  he  caught 
the  name  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  with  an  adventurous  criticism, 
"  le  sue  poesie  assai  buone."  He  then  was  lucky  enough  to 
pick  up  the  title — not  the  volume  surely — which  was  one  of 
the  rarest ;  "  Fiori  poetici  de  A.  Cowley,"  which  he  calls 
"poesie  amorose:"  this  must  mean  that  early  volume  of 
Cowley's,  published  in  his  thirteenth  year,  under  the  title  of 
"Poetical  Blossoms."  Further  he  laid  hold  of  "John 
Donne "  by  the  skirt,  and  "  Thomas  Creech,"  at  whom  he 
made  a  full  pause,  informing  his  Italians,  that  "  his  poems 
are  reputed  by  his  nation  as  '  assai  buone.' "  He  has  also 
"  Le  opere  di  Guglielmo  ;  "  but  to  this  Christian  name,  as  it 
would  appear,  he  had  not  ventured  to  add  the  surname.  At 
length,  in  his  progress  of  inquiry,  in  his  fourth  volume,  (for 
they  were  published  at  different  periods,)  he  suddenly  dis- 
covers a  host  of  English  poets — in  Waller,  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, Lord  Roscommon,  and  others,  among  whom  is  Dr. 
Swift ;  but  he  acknowledges  their  works  have  not  reached 
him.  Shakspeare  at  length  appears  on  the  scene;  but  Qua- 
drio's  notions  are  derived  from  Voltaire,  whom,  perhaps,  he 
boldly  translates.  Instead  of  improving  our  drama,  he  con- 
ducted it  a  totale  rovina  nelle  sue  farse  monstruose,  die  si 
chiaman  tragedie;  alcune  scene  vi  abbia  luminose  e  belle  e 
alcuni  tratti  si  trovono  terribili  e  grandi.  Otway  is  said  to 
have  composed  a  tragic  drama  on  the  subject  of  "  Venezia 
Salvata ; "  he  adds  with  surprise,  "  ma  affatto  regolare." 
Regularity  is  the  essence  of  genius  with  such  critics  as  Qua- 
drio.   Dryden  is  also  mentioned ;  but  the  only  drama  speci- 


QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY. 


129 


fied  is  "  King  Arthur."  Addison  is  the  first  Englishman 
who  produced  a  classical  tragedy  ;  but  though  Quadrio  writes 
much  about  the  life  of  Addison,  he  never  alludes  to  the 
Spectator. 

We  come  now  to  a  more  curious  point.  Whether  Quadrio 
had  read  our  comedies  may  be  doubtful;  but  he  distinguishes 
them  by  very  high  commendation.  Our  comedy,  he  says, 
represents  human  life,  the  manners  of  citizens  and  the  people, 
much  better  than  the  French  and  Spanish  comedies,  in  which 
all  the  business  of  life  is  mixed  up  with  love  affairs.  The 
Spaniards  had  their  gallantry  from  the  Moors,  and  their 
manners  from  chivalry;  to  which  they  added  their  tumid 
African  taste,  differing  from  that  of  other  nations.  I  shall 
translate  what  he  now  adds  of  English  comedy. 

"  The  English,  more  skilfully  even  than  the  French,  have 
approximated  to  the  true  idea  of  comic  subjects,  choosing  for 
the  argument  of  their  invention  the  customary  and  natural 
objects  of  the  citizens  and  the  populace.  And  when  religion 
and  decorum  wTere  more  respected  in  their  theatres,  they  were 
more  advanced  in  this  species  of  poetry,  and  merited  not  a 
little  praise,  above  their  neighbouring  nations.  But  more 
than  the  English  and  the  French  (to  speak  according  to  pure 
and  bare  truth)  have  the  Italians  signalized  themselves."  A 
sly,  insinuating  criticism  !  But,  as  on  the  whole,  for  reasons 
which  I  cannot  account  for,  Father  Quadrio  seems  to  have 
relished  our  English  comedy,  we  must  value  his  candour. 
He  praises  our  comedy ;  "  per  il  bello  ed  il  buono ;  "  but,  as 
he  is  a  methodical  Aristotelian,  he  will  not  allow  us  that 
liberty  in  the  theatre,  which  we  are  supposed  to  possess  in 
parliament — by  delivering  whatever  we  conceive  to  the 
purpose.  His  criticism  is  a  specimen  of  the  irrefragable. 
"  We  must  not  abandon  legitimate  rules  to  give  mere  pleasure 
thereby  ;  because  pleasure  is  produced  by,  and  flows  from,  the 
beautiful;  and  the  beautiful  is  chiefly  drawn  from  the  good 
order  and  unity  in  which  it  consists  !  " 

Quadrio  succeeded  in  discovering  the  name  of  one  of  our 

VOL.  iv.  9 


130       QUADRIO'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGLISH  POETEY. 


greatest  comic  geniuses;  for,  alluding  to  our  diversity  of 
action  in  comedy,  he  mentions  in  his  fifth  volume,  page  148, — 
"II  celebre  Benjanson,  nella  sua  commedia  intitolato  Barto- 
lommeo  Foicere,  e  in  quella  altra  commedia  intitolato  Tpsum 
Veetz."  The  reader  may  decipher  the  poet's  name  with  his 
Fair  ;  but  it  required  the  critical  sagacity  of  Mr.  Douce  to 
discover  that  by  Ipsum  Veetz  we  are  to  understand  Shad- 
well's  comedy  of  Epsom  Wells.  The  Italian  critic  had  tran- 
scribed what  he  and  his  Italian  printer  could  not  spell.  We 
have  further  discovered  the  source  of  his  intelligence  in  St. 
Evremond,  who  had  classed  Shadwell's  comedy  with  Ben 
Jonson's.  To  such  shifts  is  the  writer  of  an  universal  history 
d'  o  gni  Poesia  miserably  reduced  ! 

Towards  the  close  of  the  fifth  volume  we  at  last  find  the 
sacred  muse  of  Milton, — but,  unluckily,  he  was  a  man  "  di 
pochissima  religione,"  and  spoke  of  Christ  like  an  Arian. 
Quadrio  quotes  Ramsay  for  Milton's  vomiting  forth  abuse  on 
the  Roman  church.  His  figures  are  said  to  be  often  mean, 
unworthy  of  the  majesty  of  his  subject ;  but  in  a  later  place, 
excepting  his  religion,  our  poet,  it  is  decided  on,  is  worthy 
"  di  molti  laudi." 

Thus  much  for  the  information  the  curious  may  obtain  on 
English  poetry  from  its  universal  history.  Quadrio  unques- 
tionably writes  with  more  ignorance  than  prejudice  against 
us :  he  has  not  only  highly  distinguished  the  comic  genius  of 
our  writers,  and  raised  it  above  that  of  our  neighbours,  but 
he  has  also  advanced  another  discovery,  which  ranks  us  still 
higher  for  original  invention,  and  which,  I  am  confident,  will 
be  as  new  as  it  is  extraordinary  to  the  English  reader. 

Quadrio,  who,  among  other  erudite  accessories  to  his  work, 
has  exhausted  the  most  copious  researches  on  the  origin  of 
Punch  and  Harlequin,  has  also  written,  with  equal  curiosity 
and  value  the  history  of  Puppet-shows.  But  whom  has  he 
lauded?  whom  has  he  placed  paramount,  above  all  other 
people,  for  their  genius  of  invention  in  improving  this  art ! — 
The  English  !  and  the  glory  which  has  hitherto  been  univer- 


"  POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


131 


sally  conceded  to  the  Italian  nation  themselves,  appears  to 
belong  to  us  !  For  we,  it  appears,  while  others  were  dan- 
dling and  pulling  their  little  representatives  of  human  nature 
into  such  awkward  and  unnatural  motions,  first  invented 
pulleys,  or  wires,  and  gave  a  fine  and  natural  action  to  the 
artificial  life  of  these  gesticulating  machines ! 

We  seem  to  know  little  of  ourselves  as  connected  with  the 
history  of  puppet-shows ;  but  in  an  article  in  the  curious 
Dictionary  of  Trevoux,  I  find  that  John  Brioche,  to  whom 
had  been  attributed  the  invention  of  Marionnettes,  is  only  to 
be  considered  as  an  improver ;  in  his  time  (but  the  learned 
writers  supply  no  date)  an  Englishman  discovered  the  secret 
of  moving  them  by  springs,  and  without  strings  ;  but  the 
Marionnettes  of  Brioche  were  preferred  for  the  pleasantries 
which  he  made  them  deliver.  The  erudite  Quadrio  appears 
to  have  more  successfully  substantiated  our  claims  to  the 
pulleys  or  wires,  or  springs  of  the  puppets,  than  any  of  our 
own  antiquaries  ;  and  perhaps  the  uncommemorated  name 
of  this  Englishman  was  that  Powell,  whose  Solomon  and 
Sheba  were  celebrated  in  the  days  of  Addison  and  Steele ; 
the  former  of  whom  has  composed  a  classical  and  sportive 
Latin  poem  on  this  very  subject.  But  Quadrio  might  well 
rest  satisfied,  that  the  nation,  which  could  boast  of  its  Fan- 
toccini, surpassed,  and  must  ever  surpass  the  puny  efforts  of 
a  doll-loving  people ! 


"POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 

In  Professor  Dugald  Stewart's  first  Dissertation  on  the 
Progress  of  Philosophy,  I  find  this  singular  and  significant 
term.  It  has  occasioned  me  to  reflect  on  those  contests  for 
religion,  in  which  a  particular  faith  has  been  made  the  osten- 
sible pretext,  while  the  secret  motive  was  usually  political. 
The  historians,  who  view  in  religious  wars  only  religion 


132 


"POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


itself,  have  written  large  volume?,  in  which  we  may  never 
discover  that  they  have  either  been  a  struggle  to  obtain  pre- 
dominance, or  an  expedient  to  secure  it.  The  hatreds  of 
ambitious  men  have  disguised  their  own  purposes,  while 
Christianity  has  borne  the  odium  of  loosening  a  destroying 
spirit  among  mankind ;  which,  had  Christianity  never  ex- 
isted, would  have  equally  prevailed  in  human  affairs.  Of  a 
moral  malady,  it  is  not  only  necessary  to  know  the  nature, 
but  to  designate  it  by  a  right  name,  that  we  may  not  err  in 
our  mode  of  treatment.  If  we  call  that  religious  which  we 
shall  find  for  the  greater  part  is  political,  we  are  likely  to  be 
mistaken  in  the  regimen  and  the  cure. 

Fox,  in  his  "Acts  and  Monuments,"  writes  the  martyro- 
logy  of  the  Protestants  in  three  mighty  folios ;  where,  in  the 
third,  "  the  tender  mercies "  of  the  Catholics  are  "  cut  in 
wood  "  for  those  who  might  not  otherwise  be  enabled  to  read 
or  spell  them.  Such  pictures  are  abridgments  of  long  narra- 
tives, but  they  leave  in  the  mind  a  fulness  of  horror.  Fox 
made  more  than  one  generation  shudder ;  and  his  volume, 
particularly  this  third,  chained  to  a  reading-desk  in  the  halls 
of  the  great,  and  in  the  aisles  of  churches,  often  detained  the 
loiterer,  as  it  furnished  some  new  scene  of  papistical  horrors 
to  paint  forth  on  returning  to  his  fireside.  The  protestants 
were  then  the  martyrs,  because,  under  Mary,  the  protestants 
had  been  thrown  out  of  power. 

Dodd  has  opposed  to  Fox  three  curious  folios,  which  he 
calls  "  The  Church  History  of  England,"  exhibiting  a  most 
abundant  martyrology  of  the  catholics,  inflicted  by  the  hands 
of  the  protestants  ;  who  in  the  succeeding  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
after  long  trepidations  and  balancings,  were  confirmed  into 
power.  He  grieves  over  the  delusion  and  seduction  of  the 
black-letter  romance  of  honest  John  Fox,  which  he  says, 
"has  obtained  a  place  in  protestant  churches  next  to  the 
Bible,  while  John  Fox  himself  is  esteemed  little  less  than  an 
evangelist."  Dodd's  narratives  are  not  less  pathetic :  for  the 
situation  of  the  catholic,  who  had  to  secrete  himself,  as  well 


«  POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


133 


as  to  suffer,  was  more  adapted  for  romantic  adventures,  than 
even  the  melancholy  but  monotonous  story  of  the  protestants 
tortured  in  the  cell,  or  bound  to  the  stake.  These  catholics, 
however,  were  attempting  all  sorts  of  intrigues;  and  the 
saints  and  martyrs  of  Dodd,  to  the  parliament  of  England, 
were  only  traitors  and  conspirators  ! 

Heylin,  in  his  history  of  the  Puritans  and  the  Presby- 
terians, blackens  them  for  political  devils.  He  is  the  Spag- 
nolet  of  history,  delighting  himself  with  horrors  at  which  the 
painter  himself  must  have  started.  He  tells  of  their  "  oppo- 
sitions" to  monarchical  and  episcopal  government;  their 
"innovations"  in  the  church;  and  their  "embroilments" 
of  the  kingdoms.  The  sword  rages  in  their  hands  ;  treason, 
sacrilege,  plunder ;  while  "  more  of  the  blood  of  Englishmen 
had  poured  like  water  within  the  space  of  four  years,  than 
had  been  shed  in  the  civil  wars  of  York  and  Lancaster,  in 
four  centuries ! " 

Neal  opposes  a  more  elaborate  history  ;  where  these  "  great 
and  good  men,"  the  puritans  and  the  presbyterians,  "are 
placed  among  the  reformers  ;  "  while  their  fame  is  blanched 
into  angelic  purity.  Neal  and  his  party  opined  that  the 
protestant  had  not  sufficiently  protested,  and  that  the  refor- 
mation itself  needed  to  be  reformed.  They  wearied  the  im- 
patient Elizabeth,  and  her  ardent  churchmen ;  and  disputed 
with  the  learned  James,  and  his  courtly  bishops,  about  such 
ceremonial  trifles,  that  the  historian  may  blush  or  smile  who 
has  to  record  them.  And  when  the  puritan  was  thrown  out 
of  preferment,  and  seceded  into  separation,  he  turned  into  a 
presbyter.  Nonconformity  was  their  darling  sin,  and  their 
sullen  triumph. 

Calamy,  in  four  painful  volumes,  chronicles  the  bloodless 
martyrology  of  the  two  thousand  silenced  and  ejected  min- 
isters. Their  history  is  not  glorious,  and  their  heroes  are 
obscure  ;  but  it  is  a  domestic  tale !  When  the  second  Charles 
was  restored,  the  presbyterians,  like  every  other  faction,  were 
to  be  amused,  if  not  courted.    Some  of  the  king's  chaplains 


134 


"POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


were  selected  from  among  them,  and  preached  once.  Their 
hopes  were  raised  that  they  should,  by  some  agreement,  be 
enabled  to  share  in  that  ecclesiastical  establishment  which 
they  had  so  often  opposed ;  and  the  bishops  met  the  pres- 
byters in  a  convocation  at  the  Savoy.  A  conference  was 
held  between  the  high  church,  resuming  the  seat  of  power, 
and  the  low  church,  now  prostrate ;  that  is,  between  the  old 
clergy  who  had  recently  been  mercilessly  ejected  by  the  new, 
who  in  their  turn  were  awaiting  their  fate.  The  conference 
was  closed  with  arguments  by  the  weaker,  and  votes  by  the 
stronger.  Many  curious  anecdotes  of  this  conference  have 
come  down  to  us.  The  presbyterians,  in  their  last  struggle, 
petitioned  for  indulgence ;  but  oppressors  who  had  become 
petitioners,  only  showed  that  they  possessed  no  longer  the 
means  of  resistance.  This  conference  was  followed  up  by 
the  Act  of  Uniformity,  which  took  place  on  Bartholomew 
day,  August  24,  1662:  an  act  which  ejected  Calamy's  two 
thousand  ministers  from  the  bosom  of  the  established  church. 
Bartholomew  day  with  this  party  was  long  paralleled,  and 
perhaps  is  still,  with  the  dreadful  French  massacre  of  that 
fatal  saint's  day.  The  calamity  was  rather,  however,  of  a 
private  than  of  a  public  nature.  The  two  thousand  ejected 
ministers  were  indeed  deprived  of  their  livings ;  but  this 
was,  however,  a  happier  fate  than  what  has  often  occurred  in 
these  contests  for  the  security  of  political  power.  This 
ejection  was  not  like  the  expulsion  of  the  Moriscoes,  the 
best  and  most  useful  subjects  of  Spain,  which  was  a  human 
sacrifice  of  half  a  million  of  men,  and  the  proscription  of 
many  Jews  from  that  land  of  Catholicism  ;  or  the  massacre 
of  thousands  of  Huguenots,  and  the  expulsion  of  more  than 
a  hundred  thousand,  by  Louis  the  Fourteenth  from  France. 
The  presbyterian  divines  were  not  driven  from  their  father- 
land, and  compelled  to  learn  another  language  than  their 
mother-tongue.  Destitute  as  divines,  they  were  suffered  to 
remain  as  citizens  ;  and  the  result  was  remarkable.  These 
divines  could  not  disrobe  themselves  of  their  learning  and 


"POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM.' 


135 


their  piety,  while  several  of  them  were  compelled  to  become 
tradesmen :  among  these  the  learned  Samuel  Chandler, 
whose  literary  productions  are  numerous,  kept  a  bookseller's 
shop  in  the  Poultry. 

Hard  as  this  event  proved  in  its  result,  it  was,  however, 
pleaded,  that  "  It  was  but  like  for  like."  And  that  the  his- 
tory of  "  the  like  "  might  not  be  curtailed  in  the  telling,  op- 
posed to  Calamy's  chronicle  of  the  two  thousand  ejected 
ministers  stands  another,  in  folio  magnitude,  of  the  same  sort 
of  chronicle  of  the  clergy  of  the  church  of  England,  with  a 
title  by  no  means  less  pathetic. 

This  is  Walker's  "Attempt  towards  recovering  an  account 
of  the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  who  were  seques- 
tered, harassed,  &c,  in  the  late  Times."  Walker  is  himself 
astonished  at  the  size  of  his  volume,  the  number  of  his  suffer- 
ers, and  the  variety  of  the  sufferings.  "  Shall  the  church," 
says  he,  "  not  have  the  liberty  to  preserve  the  history  of  her 
sufferings,  as  well  as  the  separation  to  set  forth  an  account 
of  theirs  ?  Can  Dr.  Calamy  be  acquitted  for  publishing  the 
history  of  the  Bartholomew  sufferers,  if  I  am  condemned  for 
writing  that  of  the  sequestered  loyalists  ? "  He  allows  that 
"  the  number  of  the  ejected  amounts  to  two  thousand,"  and 
there  were  no  less  than  "  seven  or  eight  thousand  of  the 
episcopal  clergy  imprisoned,  banished,  and  sent  a  starving," 
&c,  &c. 

Whether  the  reformed  were  martyred  by  the  catholics,  or 
the  catholics  executed  by  the  reformed  ;  whether  the  puritans 
expelled  those  of  the  established  church,  or  the  established 
church  ejected  the  puritans,  all  seems  reducible  to  two 
classes,  conformists  and  non-conformists,  or,  in  the  political 
style,  the  administration  and  the  opposition.  When  we  dis- 
cover that  the  heads  of  all  parties  are  of  the  same  hot  tem- 
perament, and  observe  the  same  evil  conduct  in  similar  situa- 
tions ;  when  we  view  honest  old  Latimer  with  his  own  hands 
hanging  a  mendicant  friar  on  a  tree,  and,  the  government 
changing,  the  friars  binding  Latimer  to  the  stake ;  when  we 


136 


"POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


eee  the  French  catholics  cutting  out  the  tongues  of  the  prot- 
estants,  that  they  might  no  longer  protest ;  the  haughty  Lu- 
ther writing  submissive  apologies  to  Leo  the  Tenth  and 
Henry  the  Eighth  for  the  scurrility  with  which'  he  had 
treated  them  in  his  writings,  and  finding  that  his  apologies 
were  received  with  contempt,  then  retracting  his  retracta- 
tions ;  when  we  find  that  haughtiest  of  the  haughty,  John 
Knox,  when  Elizabeth  first  ascended  the  throne,  crouching 
and  repenting  of  having  written  his  famous  excommunication 
against  all  female  sovereignty  ;  or  pulling  down  the  monaste- 
ries, from  the  axiom  that  when  the  rookery  was  destroyed, 
the  rooks  would  never  return  ;  when  we  find  his  recent  apol- 
ogist admiring,  while  he  apologizes  for,  some  extraordinary 
proofs  of  Machiavelian  politics,  an  impenetrable  mystery 
seems  to  hang  over  the  conduct  of  men  who  profess  to  be 
guided  by  the  bloodless  code  of  Jesus — but  try  them  by  a 
human  standard,  and  treat  them  as  politicians  ;  and  the  mo- 
tives once  discovered,  the  actions  are  understood ! 

Two  edicts  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  in  1555,  condemned  to 
death  the  Reformed  of  the  Low  Countries,  even  should  they 
return  to  the  catholic  faith,  with  this  exception,  however,  in 
favour  of  the  latter,  that  they  shall  not  be  burnt  alive,  but 
that  the  men  shall  be  beheaded,  and  the  women  buried 
alive!  Religion  could  not  then  be  the  real  motive  of  the 
Spanish  cabinet,  for  in  returning  to  the  ancient  faith  that 
point  was  obtained  ;  but  the  truth  is,  that  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment considered  the  reformed  as  rebels,  whom  it  was  not 
safe  to  readmit  to  the  rights  of  citizenship.  The  undisguised 
fact  appears  in  the  codicil  to  the  will  of  the  emperor,  when 
he  solemnly  declares  that  he  had  written  to  the  Inquisition 
"to  burn  and  extirpate  the  heretics,"  after  trying  to  make 
Christians  of  them,  because  he  is  convinced  that  they  never 
can  become  sincere  catholics ;  and  he  acknowledges  that  he 
had  committed  a  great  fault  in  permitting  Luther  to  return 
free  on  the  faith  of  his  safe-conduct,  as  the  emperor  was  not 
bound  to  keep  a  promise  with  a  heretic.    "  It  is  because  that 


"  POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


137 


I  destroyed  him  not,  that  heresy  has  now  become  strong, 
which  I  am  convinced  might  have  been  stifled  with  him  in 
its  birth."  *  The  whole  conduct  of  Charles  the  Fifth  in  this 
mighty  revolution,  was,  from  its  beginning,  censured  by  con- 
temporaries as  purely  political.  Francis  the  First  observed, 
that  the  emperor,  under  the  colour  of  religion,  was  placing 
himself  at  the  head  of  a  league  to  make  his  way  to  a  pre- 
dominant monarchy.  "  The  pretext  of  religion  is  no  new 
thing,"  writes  the  Duke  of  Nevers.  "  Charles  the  Fifth  had 
never  undertaken  a  war  against  the  protestant  princes,  but 
with  the  design  of  rendering  the  imperial  crown  hereditary 
in  the  house  of  Austria ;  and  he  has  only  attacked  the  elec- 
toral princes  to  ruin  them,  and  to  abolish  their  right  of  elec- 
tion. Had  it  been  zeal  for  the  catholic  religion,  would  he 
have  delayed  from  1519  to  1549  to  arm,  that  he  might  have 
extinguished  the  Lutheran  heresy,  which  he  could  easily 
have  done  in  1526  ?  But  he  considered  that  this  novelty 
would  serve  to  divide  the  German  princes,  and  he  patiently 
waited  till  the  effect  was  realized."  f 

Good  men  of  both  parties,  mistaking  the  nature  of  these 
religious  wars,  have  drawn  horrid  inferences  !  The  "  dragon- 
nades  "  of  Louis  XIV.  excited  the  admiration  of  Bruyere  ; 
and  Anquetil,  in  his  "  Esprit  de  la  Ligue,"  compares  the 
revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes  to  a  salutary  amputation. 
The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  in  its  own  day,  and  even 
recently,  has  found  advocates  ;  a  Greek  professor  at  the  time 
asserted  that  there  were  two  classes  of  protestants  in  France, 
political  and  religious  ;  and  that  "  the  late  ebullition  of  public 
vengeance  was  solely  directed  against  the  former."  Dr. 
M'Crie,  cursing  the  catholic  with  a  catholic's  curse,  execrates 
"  the  stale  sophistry  of  this  calumniator."  But  should  we 
allow  that  the  Greek  professor  who  advocated  their  national 
crime  was  the  wretch  the  calvinistic  doctor  describes,  yet  the 

*  Llorente's  Critical  History  of  the  Inquisition 

t  Naude,  Considerations  Politiques,  p.  115.  See  a  curious  note  in 
Harte's  Life  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  ii.  129. 


138 


"  POLITICAL  RELIGIONISM." 


nature  of  things  cannot  be  altered  by  the  equal  violence  of 
Peter  Charpentier  and  Dr.  M'Crie. 

This  subject  of  "  Political  Religionism  "  is  indeed  as  nice 
as  it  is  curious  ;  politics  have  been  so  cunningly  worked  into 
the  cause  of  religion,  that  the  parties  themselves  will  never 
be  able  to  separate  them  ;  and  to  this  moment,  the  most  op- 
posite opinions  are  formed  concerning  the  same  events,  and 
the  same  persons.  When  public  disturbances  broke  out  at 
Nismes  on  the  first  restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  the  protes- 
tants,  who  there  are  numerous,  declared  that  they  were  per- 
secuted for  religion,  and  their  cry,  echoed  by  their  brethren 
the  dissenters,  resounded  in  this  country.  We  have  not  for- 
gotten the  ferment  it  raised  here  ;  much  was  said,  and  some- 
thing was  done.  Our  minister  however  persisted  in  declaring 
that  it  was  a  mere  political  affair.  It  is  clear  that  our  gov- 
ernment was  right  on  the  cause,  and  those  zealous  complain- 
ants wrong,  who  only  observed  the  effect ;  for  as  soon  as  the 
Bourbonists  had  triumphed  over  the  Bonapartists,  we  heard 
no  more  of  those  sanguinary  persecutions  of  the  protestants 
of  Nismes,  of  which  a  dissenter  has  just  published  a  large 
history.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  when  two  writers  at  the 
same  time  were  occupied  in  a  life  of  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
Flechier  converted  the  cardinal  into  a  saint,  and  every  inci- 
dent in  his  administration  was  made  to  connect  itself  with  his 
religious  character  ;  Marsollier,  a  writer  very  inferior  to 
Flechier,  shows  the  cardinal  merely  as  a  politician.  The 
elegancies  of  Flechier  were  soon  neglected  by  the  public,  and 
the  deep  interests  of  truth  soon  acquired,  and  still  retain,  for 
the  less  elegant  writer,  the  attention  of  the  statesman. 

A  modern  historian  has  observed,  that  "  the  affairs  of  re- 
ligion were  the  grand  fomenters  and  promoters  of  the  Thirty 
years''  war,  which  first  brought  down  the  powers  of  the  North 
to  mix  in  the  politics  of  the  Southern  states."  The  fact  is 
indisputable,  but  the  cause  is  not  so  apparent.  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  the  vast  military  genius  of  his  age,  had  designed, 
and  was  successfully  attempting,  to  oppose  the  overgrown 


TOLERATION. 


139 


power  of  the  imperial  house  of  Austria,  which  had  long 
aimed  at  an  universal  monarchy  in  Europe  ;  a  circumstance 
which  Philip  IV.  weakly  hinted  at  to  the  world  when  he 
placed  this  motto  under  his  arms — "  Sine  ipso  factum  est 
nihil ;  "  an  expression  applied  to  Jesus  Christ  by  St.  John  ! 


TOLERATION. 

An  enlightened  toleration  is  a  blessing  of  the  last  age — it 
would  seem  to  have  been  practised  by  the  Romans,  when 
they  did  not  mistake  the  primitive  Christians  for  seditious 
members  of  society ;  and  was  inculcated  even  by  Mahomet, 
in  a  passage  in  the  Koran,  but  scarcely  practised  by  his  fol- 
lowers. In  modern  history,  it  was  condemned,  when  religion 
was  turned  into  a  political  contest,  under  the  aspiring  house 
of  Austria — and  in  Spain — and  in  France.  It  required  a 
long  time  before  its  nature  was  comprehended — and  to  this 
moment  it  is  far  from  being  clear,  either  to  the  tolerators,  or 
the  tolerated. 

It  does  not  appear,  that  the  precepts  or  the  practice  of 
Jesus  and  the  apostles  inculcate  the  compelling  of  any  to  be 
Christians;*  yet  an  expression  employed  in  the  nuptial 
parable  of  the  great  supper,  when  the  hospitable  lord  com- 
manded the  servant,  finding  that  he  had  still  room  to  accom- 
modate more  guests,  to  go  out  in  the  highways  and  hedges, 
and  "  compel  them  to  come  in,  that  my  house  may  be  filled" 
was  alleged  as  an  authority  by  those  catholics  who  called 
themselves  "  the  converters,"  for  using  religious  force,  which, 
still  alluding  to  the  hospitable  lord,  they  called  "  a  charitable 
and  salutary  violence."    It  was  this  circumstance  which  pro- 

*  Bishop  Barlow's  "  Several  Miscellaneous  and  Weighty  Cases  of  Con- 
science Resolved,  1692."  His  "  Case  of  a  Toleration  in  Matters  of  Re- 
ligion," addressed  to  Robert  Boyle,  p.  39.  This  volume  was  not  intended 
to  have  been  given  to  the  world,  a  circumstance  which  does  not  make  it 
the  less  curious. 


140 


TOLERATION. 


duced  Bayle's  "  Commentaire  Philosophique  sur  ces  Paroles 
de  Jesus  Christ,"  published  under  the  supposititious  name  of 
an  Englishman,  as  printed  at  Canterbury  in  1686,  but  really 
at  Amsterdam.  It  is  curious  that  Locke  published  his  first 
letter  on  "Toleration"  in  Latin  at  Gouda,  in  1689 — the 
second  in  1690 — and  the  third  in  1692.  Bayle  opened  the 
mind  of  Locke,  and  some  time  after  quotes  Locke's  Latin 
letter  with  high  commendation.*  The  caution  of  both  writers 
in  publishing  in  foreign  places,  however,  indicates  the  pru- 
dence which  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  observe  in  writing 
in  favour  of  toleration. 

These  were  the  first  philosophical  attempts  ;  but  the  earli- 
est advocates  for  toleration  may  be  found  among  the  religious 
controversialists  of  a  preceding  period ;  it  was  probably  started 
among  the  fugitive  sects  who  had  found  an  asylum  in  Hol- 
land. It  was  a  blessing  which  they  had  gone  far  to  find,  and 
the  miserable,  reduced  to  humane  feelings,  are  compassionate 
to  one  another.  With  us  the  sect  called  "the  Independents" 
had,  early  in  our  revolution  under  Charles  the  First,  pleaded 
for  the  doctrine  of  religious  liberty,  and  long  maintained  it 
against  the  presbyterians.  Both  proved  persecutors  when 
they  possessed  power.  The  first  of  our  respectable  divines 
who  advocated  this  cause  was  Jeremy  Taylor,  in  his  "  Dis- 
course on  the  Liberty  of  Prophesying,"  1647,  and  Bishop 
Hall,  who  had  pleaded  the  cause  of  moderation  in  a  discourse 
about  the  same  period.  |    Locke  had  no  doubt  examined  all 

*  In  the  article  Sancterius.    Note  F. 

f  Recent  writers  among  our  sectarists  assert  that  Dr.  Owen  was  the  first 
who  wrote  in  favour  of  toleration,  in  1648!  Another  claims  the  honour  for 
John  Goodwin,  the  chaplain  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  published  one  of  his 
obscure  polemical  tracts  in  1644,  among  a  number  of  other  persons  who,  at 
that  crisis,  did  not  venture  to  prefix  their  names  to  pleas  in  favour  of  tol- 
eration, so  delicate  and  so  obscure  did  this  subject  then  appear!  In  1651, 
they  translated  the  liberal  treatise  of  Grotius,  De  imperio  Summarum  Potes- 
tatum  circa  Sacra,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Authority  of  the  Highest  Powers 
about  Sacred  Things,"  London,  8vo.  1651.  To  the  honour  of  Grotius,  the 
first  of  philosophical  reformers,  be  it  recorded,  that  he  displeased  both 
parties ! 


TOLERATION. 


141 


these  writers.  The  history  of  opinions  is  among  the  most 
curious  of  histories  ;  and  I  suspect  that  Bayle  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  pamphlets  of  our  sectarists,  who,  in  their 
flight  to  Holland,  conveyed  those  curiosities  of  theology, 
which  had  cost  them  their  happiness  and  their  estates :  I 
think  he  indicates  this  hidden  source  of  his  ideas,  by  the 
extraordinary  ascription  of  his  book  to  an  Englishman,  and 
fixing  the  place  of  its  publication  at  Canterbury  ! 

Toleration  has  been  a  vast  engine  in  the  hands  of  modern 
politicians.  It  was  established  in  the  United  Provinces  of 
Holland,  and  our  numerous  non-conformists  took  refuge  in 
that  asylum  for  disturbed  consciences ;  it  attracted  a  valuable 
community  of  French  refugees ;  it  conducted  a  colony  of 
Hebrew  fugitives  from  Portugal ;  conventicles  of  Brownists, 
quakers'  meetings,  French  churches,  and  Jewish  synagogues, 
and  (had  it  been  required)  Mahometan  mosques,  in  Amster- 
dam, were  the  precursors  of  its  mart,  and  its  exchange ;  the 
moment  they  could  preserve  their  consciences  sacred  to 
themselves,  they  lived  without  mutual  persecution,  and  mixed 
together  as  good  Dutchmen. 

The  excommunicated  part  of  Europe  seemed  to  be  the 
most  enlightened,  and  it  was  then  considered  as  a  proof  of 
the  admirable  progress  of  the  human  mind,  that  Locke  and 
Clarke  and  Newton  corresponded  with  Leibnitz,  and  others 
of  the  learned  in  France  and  Italy.  Some  were  astonished 
that  philosophers,  who  differed  in  their  religious  opinions, 
should  communicate  among  themselves  with  so  much  tolera- 
tion.* 

It  is  not,  however,  clear,  that  had  any  one  of  these  sects 
at  Amsterdam  obtained  predominance,  which  was  sometimes 
attempted,  they  would  have  granted  to  others  the  toleration 
they  participated  in  common.  The  infancy  of  a  party  is 
accompanied  by  a  political  weakness,  which  disables  it  from 
weakening  others. 


*  J.  P.  Rabaut,  sur  la  Revolution  Francaise,  p.  27. 


142 


TOLERATION. 


The  catholic  in  this  country  pleads  for  toleration ;  in  his 
own,  he  refuses  to  grant  it.  Here,  the  presbyterian,  who 
had  complained  of  persecution,  once  fixed  in  the  seat  of 
power,  abrogated  every  kind  of  independence  among  others. 
When  the  flames  consumed  Servetus  at  Geneva,  the  contro- 
versy began,  whether  the  civil  magistrate  might  punish 
heretics,  which  Beza,  the  associate  of  Calvin,  maintained :  he 
triumphed  in  the  small  predestinating  city  of  Geneva ;  but 
the  book  he  wrote  was  fatal  to  the  protestants  a  few  leagues 
distant,  among  a  majority  of  catholics.  Whenever  the  protes- 
tants complained  of  the  persecutions  they  suffered,  the  cath- 
olics, for  authority  and  sanction,  never  failed  to  appeal  to  the 
volume  of  their  own  Beza. 

M.  Necker  de  Saussure  has  recently  observed  on  "what 
trivial  circumstances  the  change  or  the  preservation  of  the 
established  religion  in  different  districts  of  Europe  has  de- 
pended ! "  When  the  Reformation  penetrated  into  Switzer- 
land, the  government  of  the  principality  of  Neufchatel, 
wishing  to  allow  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  their  subjects, 
invited  each  parish  to  vote  "  for  or  against  the  adoption  of 
the  new  worship ;  and  in  all  the  parishes,  except  two,  the 
majority  of  suffrages  declared  in  favour  of  the  protestant 
communion."  The  inhabitants  of  the  small  village  of  Creis- 
sier  had  also  assembled ;  and  forming  an  even  number,  there 
happened  to  be  an  equality  of  votes  for  and  against  the 
change  of  religion.  A  shepherd  being  absent,  tending  the 
flocks  on  the  hills,  they  summoned  him  to  appear  and  decide 
this  important  question ;  when,  having  no  liking  to  innova- 
tion, he  gave  his  voice  in  favour  of  the  existing  form  of  wor- 
ship ;  and  this  parish  remained  catholic,  and  is  so  at  this 
day,  in  the  heart  of  the  protestant  cantons. 

I  proceed  to  some  facts,  which  I  have  arranged  for  the 
history  of  Toleration.  In  the  Memoirs  of  James  the  Second, 
when  that  monarch  published  "  The  Declaration  for  Liberty 
of  Conscience,"  the  catholic  reasons  and  liberalizes  like  a 
modern  philosopher :  he  accuses  "  the  jealousy  of  our  clergy, 


TOLERATION. 


143 


who  had  degraded  themselves  into  intriguers ;  and  like  me- 
chanics in  a  trade,  who  are  afraid  of  nothing  so  much  as 
interlopers — they  had  therefore  induced  indifferent  persons 
to  imagine  that  their  earnest  contest  was  not  about  their 
faith,  but  about  their  temporal  possessions.  It  was  incon- 
gruous that  a  church,  which  does  not  pretend  to  be  infallible, 
should  constrain  persons,  under  heavy  penalties  and  punish- 
ments, to  believe  as  she  does :  they  delighted,  he  asserted,  to 
hold  an  iron  rod  over  dissenters  and  catholics ;  so  sweet  was 
dominion,  that  the  very  thought  of  others  participating  in 
their  freedom  made  them  deny  the  very  doctrine  they 
preached."  The  chief  argument  the  catholic  urged  on  this 
occasion  was  "  the  reasonableness  of  repealing  laws,  which 
made  men  liable  to  the  greatest  punishments  for  that  it  was 
not  in  their  power  to  remedy,  for  that  no  man  could  force 
himself  to  believe  what  he  really  did  not  believe."  * 

Such  was  the  rational  language  of  the  most  bigoted  of 
zealots ! — The  fox  can  bleat  like  the  lamb.  At  the  very 
moment  James  the  Second  was  uttering  this  mild  expostula- 
tion, in  his  own  heart  he  had  anathematized  the  nation  ;  for 
I  have  seen  some  of  the  king's  private  papers,  which  still 
exist;  they  consist  of  communications,  chiefly  by  the  most 
bigoted  priests,  with  the  wildest  projects,  and  most  infatuated 
prophecies  and  dreams,  of  restoring  the  true  catholic  faith  in 
England !  Had  the  Jesuit-led  monarch  retained  the  English 
throne,  the  language  he  now  addressed  to  the  nation  would 
have  been  no  longer  used ;  and  in  that  case  it  would  have 
served  his  protestant  subjects.  He  asked  for  toleration,  to 
become  intolerant !  He  devoted  himself,  not  to  the  hundredth 
part  of  the  English  nation ;  and  yet  he  was  surprised  that 
he  was  left  one  morning  without  any  army !  When  the 
catholic  monarch  issued  this  declaration  for  "  liberty  of  con- 
science," the  Jekyll  of  his  day  observed,  that  "  it  was  but 
scaffolding :  they  intend  to  build  another  house ;  and  when 


*  Life  of  James  the  Second,  from  his  own  papers,  ii.  114. 


144 


TOLERATION. 


that  house  (Popery)  is  built,  they  will  take  down  the  scaf- 
fold." * 

When  presbytery  was  our  lord,  they  who  had  endured  the 
tortures  of  persecution,  and  raised  such  sharp  outcries  for 
freedom,  of  all  men  were  the  most  intolerant:  hardly  had 
they  tasted  of  the  Circean  cup  of  dominion,  ere  they  were 
transformed  into  the  most  hideous  or  the  most  grotesque 
monsters  of  political  power.  To  their  eyes  toleration  was  an 
hydra,  and  the  dethroned  bishops  had  never  so  vehemently 
declaimed  against  what,  in  ludicrous  rage,  one  of  the  high- 
flying presbyterians  called  "  a  cursed  intolerable  toleration  !  " 
They  advocated  the  rights  of  persecution ;  and  "  shallow  Ed- 
wards," as  Milton  calls  the  author  of  "The  Gangraena," 
published  a  treatise  against  toleration.  They  who  had  so 
long  complained  of  "  the  licensers,"  now  sent  all  the  books 
they  condemned  to  penal  fires.  Prynne  now  vindicated  the 
very  doctrines  under  which  he  himself  had  so  severely  suf- 
fered ;  assuming  the  highest  possible  power  of  civil  govern- 
ment, even  to  the  infliction  of  death  on  its  opponents. 
Prynne  lost  all  feeling  for  the  ears  of  others ! 

The  idea  of  toleration  was  not  intelligible  for  too  long  a 
period  in  the  annals  of  Europe ;  no  parties  probably  could  con- 
ceive the  idea  of  toleration,  in  the  struggle  for  predominance. 
Treaties  are  not  proffered  when  conquest  is  the  concealed 
object.  Men  were  immolated !  a  massacre  was  a  sacrifice ! 
medals  were  struck  to  commemorate  these  holy  persecu- 
tions !  f    The  destroying  angel,  holding  in  one  hand  a  cross, 

*  This  was  a  Baron  Wallop.  From  Dr.  H.  Sampson's  Manuscript 
Diary. 

f  It  is  curious  to  observe  that  the  catholics  were  afterwards  ashamed 
of  these  indiscretions ;  they  were  unwilling  to  own  that  there  were  any 
medals  which  commemorate  massacres.  Thuanus,  in  his  53d  book,  has 
minutely  described  them.  The  medals,  however,  have  become  excessively 
scarce ;  but  copies  inferior  to  the  originals  have  been  sold.  They  had 
also  pictures  on  similar  subjects,  accompanied  by  insulting  inscriptions, 
which  latter  they  have  effaced,  sometimes  very  imperfectly.  See  Hollis's 
Memoirs,  p.  312-14.  This  enthusiast  advertised  in  the  papers  to  request 
travellers  to  procure  them. 


TOLERATION. 


1  15 


and  in  the  other  a  sword,  with  these  words — Vgonottorum 
Strages,  1572 — "The  massacre  of  the  Huguenots" — proves 
that  toleration  will  not  agree  with  that  date.  Castelnau,  a 
statesman  and  a  humane  man,  was  at  a  loss  how  to  decide 
on  a  point  of  the  utmost  importance  to  France.  In  1532 
they  first  began  to  burn  the  Lutherans  or  Calvinists,  and  to 
cut  out  the  tongues  of  all  protestants,  "  that  they  might  no 
longer  protest."  According  to  Father  Paul,  fifty  thousand 
persons  had  perished  in  the  Netherlands,  by  different  tor- 
tures, for  religion.  But  a  change  in  the  religion  of  the  state, 
Castelnau  considered,  would  occasion  one  in  the  government : 
he  wondered  how  it  happened,  that  the  more  they  punished 
with  death,  it  only  increased  the  number  of  the  victims: 
martyrs  produced  proselytes.  As  a  statesman,  he  looked 
round  the  great  field  of  human  actions  in  the  history  of  the 
past ;  there  he  discovered  that  the  Romans  were  more  en- 
lightened in  their  actions  than  ourselves ;  that  Trajan  com- 
manded Pliny  the  younger  not  to  molest  the  Christians  for 
their  religion,  but  should  their  conduct  endanger  the  state,  to 
put  down  illegal  assemblies  ;  that  Julian  the  Apostate  ex- 
pressly forbad  the  execution  of  the  Christians,  who  then 
imagined  that  they  were  securing  their  salvation  by  martyr- 
dom ;  but  he  ordered  all  their  goods  to  be  confiscated — a 
severe  punishment — by  which  Julian  prevented  more  than 
he  could  have  done  by  persecutions.  "All  this,"  he  adds, 
we  read  in  ecclesiastical  history."  *  Such  were  the  senti- 
ments of  Castelnau,  in  1560.  Amidst  perplexities  of  state 
necessity,  and  of  our  common  humanity,  the  notion  of  tolera- 
tion had  not  entered  into  the  views  of  the  statesman.  It  was 
also  at  this  time  that  De  Sainctes,  a  great  controversial 
writer,  declared,  that  had  the  fires  lighted  for  the  destruction 
of  Calvinism  not  been  extinguished,  the  sect  had  not  spread  ! 
About  half  a  century  subsequent  to  this  period,  Thuanus 
was,  perhaps,  the  first  great  mind  who  appears  to  have  in- 
sinuated to  the  French  monarch  and  his  nation,  that  they 

*  M^moires  de  Michel  de  Castelnau,  liv.  i.  c.  4. 
VOL.  iv.  10 


146 


TOLERATION. 


might  live  at  peace  with  heretics ;  by  which  avowal  he  called 
down  on  himself  the  haughty  indignation  of  Rome,  and  a 
declaration,  that  the  man  who  spoke  in  favour  of  heretics 
must  necessarily  be  one  of  the  first  class.  Hear  the  afflicted 
historian :  "  Have  men  no  compassion,  after  forty  years 
passed  full  of  continual  miseries  ?  Have  they  no  fear  after 
the  loss  of  the  Netherlands,  occasioned  by  that  frantic  ob- 
stinacy which  marked  the  times  ?  I  grieve  that  such  senti- 
ments should  have  occasioned  my  book  to  have  been 
examined  with  a  rigour  that  amounts  to  calumny."  Such 
was  the  language  of  Thuanus,  in  a  letter  written  in  1606  ;* 
which  indicates  an  approximation  to  toleration,  but  which 
term  was  not  probably  yet  found  in  any  dictionary.  We 
may  consider,  as  so  many  attempts  at  toleration,  the  great 
national  synod  of  Dort,  whose  history  is  amply  written  by 
Brandt ;  and  the  mitigating  protestantism  of  Laud,  to  ap- 
proximate to  the  ceremonies  of  the  Roman  church ;  but  the 
synod,  after  holding  about  two  hundred  sessions,  closed, 
dividing  men  into  universalists  and  semi-universalists,  supra- 
lapsarians  and  sublapsarians !  The  reformed  themselves 
produced  the  remonstrants  ;  and  Laud's  ceremonies  ended  in 
placing  the  altar  eastward,  and  in  raising  the  scaffold  for  the 
monarchy  and  the  hierarchy.  Error  is  circuitous  when  it 
will  do  what  it  has  not  yet  learnt.  They  were  pressing  for 
conformity  to  do  that  which,  a  century  afterwards,  they  found 
could  only  be  done  by  toleration. 

The  secret  history  of  toleration  among  certain  parties  has 
been  disclosed  to  us  by  a  curious  document,  from  that  relig- 
ious Machiavel,  the  fierce  ascetic  republican  John  Knox,  a 
calvinistical  Pope.  "  While  the  posterity  of  Abraham," 
says  that  mighty  and  artful  reformer,  "  were  few  in  number, 
and  while  they  sojourned  in  different  countries,  they  were 
merely  required  to  avoid  all  participation  in  the  idolatrous 
rites  of  the  heathen ;  but  as  soon  as  they  prospered  into  a 
kingdom,  and  had  obtained  possession  of  Canaan,  they  were 
*  Life  of  Thuanus,  by  the  Rev.  J.  Collinson,  p.  115. 


TOLERATION. 


147 


strictly  charged  to  suppress  idolatry,  and  to  destroy  all  the 
monuments  and  incentives.  The  same  duty  was  now  incum- 
bent on  the  professors  of  the  true  religion  in  Scotland. 
Formerly,  when  not  more  than  ten  persons  in  a  county  were 
enlightened,  it  would  have  been  foolishness  to  have  demanded 
of  the  nobility  the  suppression  of  idolatry.  But  now,  when 
knowledge  had  been  increased,"  &c*  Such  are  the  men 
who  cry  out  for  toleration  during  their  state  of  political 
weakness,  but  who  cancel  the  bond  by  which  they  hold  their 
tenure  whenever  they  "  obtain  possession  of  Canaan."  The 
only  commentary  on  this  piece  of  the  secret  history  of  tolera- 
tion is  the  acute  remark  of  Swift:  "  We  are  fully  convinced 
that  we  shall  always  tolerate  them,  but  not  that  they  will 
tolerate  us." 

The  truth  is,  that  toleration  was  allowed  by  none  of 
the  parties !  and  I  will  now  show  the  dilemmas  into  which 
each  party  thrust  itself. 

When  the  kings  of  England  would  forcibly  have  estab- 
lished episcopacy  in  Scotland,  the  presbyters  passed  an  act 
against  the  toleration  of  dissenters  from  presbyterian  doc- 
trines and  discipline  ;  and  thus,  as  Guthrie  observes,  they 
were  committing  the  same  violence  on  the  consciences  of 
their  brethren,  which  they  opposed  in  the  king.  The  pres- 
byterians  contrived  their  famous  covenant  to  dispossess  the 
royalists  of  their  livings  ;  and  the  independents,  who  assumed 
the  principle  of  toleration  in  their  very  name,  shortly  after 
enforced  what  they  called  the  engagement,  to  eject  the  pres- 
byterians  !  In  England,  where  the  dissenters  were  ejected, 
their  great  advocate  Calamy  complains  that  the  dissenters 
were  only  making  use  of  the  same  arguments  which  the  most 
eminent  reformers  had  done  in  their  noble  defence  of  the  ref- 
ormation against  the  papists;  while  the  arguments  of  the 
established  church  against  the  dissenters  were  the  same 
which  were  urged  by  the  papists  against  the  protestant  ref- 


*  Dr.  M'Crie's  Life  of  John  Knox,  ii.  122. 


148 


TOLERATION. 


ormation  !  *  When  the  presbyterians  were  our  masters,  and 
preached  up  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  in  spiritual 
matters  to  the  civil  power,  it  was  unquestionably  passing  a 
self-condemnation  on  their  own  recent  opposition  and  detrac- 
tion of  the  former  episcopacy.  Whenever  men  act  from  a 
secret  motive  entirely  contrary  to  their  ostensible  one,  such 
monstrous  results  will  happen ;  and  as  extremes  will  join, 
however  opposite  they  appear  in  their  beginnings,  John 
Knox  and  Father  Petre,  in  office,  would  have  equally  served 
James  the  Second  as  confessor  and  prime  minister ! 

A  fact  relating  to  the  famous  Justus  Lipsius  proves  the 

*  I  quote  from  an  unpublished  letter,  written  so  late  as  in  1749,  addressed 
to  the  author  of  "  The  Free  and  Candid  Disquisition,"  by  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Allen,  rector  of  Kettering,  Northamptonshire.  However  extravagant  his 
doctrine  appears  to  us,  I  suspect  that  it  exhibits  the  concealed  sentiments 
of  even  some  protestant  churchmen !  This  rector  of  Kettering  attributes 
the  growth  of  schism  to  the  negligence  of  the  clergy,  and  seems  to  have 
persecuted  both  the  archbishops,  "  to  his  detriment,"  as  he  tells  us,  with 
singular  plans  of  reform  borrowed  from  monastic  institutions.  He  wished 
to  revive  the  practice  inculcated  by  a  canon  of  the  Council  of  Laodicea, 
of  having  prayers  ad  horam  nonam  et  ad  vesperam — prayers  twice  a  day  in 
the  churches.    But  his  grand  project  take  in  his  own  words : — 

"  I  let  the  archbishop  know  that  I  had  composed  an  irenicon,  wherein  I 
prove  the  necessity  of  an  ecclesiastical  power  over  consciences  in  matters 
of  religion,  which  utterly  silences  their  arguments  who  plead  so  hard  for 
toleration.  I  took  my  scheme  from  '  A  Discourse  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity,' 
wherein  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  over  the  consciences  of  sub- 
jects in  matters  of  external  religion  is  asserted ;  the  mischiefs  and  incon- 
veniences of  toleration  are  represented,  and  all  pretences  pleaded  in  behalf 
of  liberty  of  conscience  are  fully  answered.  If  this  book  were  reprinted 
and  considered,  the  king  would  know  his  power  and  the  people  their 
duty." 

The  rector  of  Kettering  seems  not  to  have  known  that  the  author  of  this 
"  Discourse  on  Ecclesiastical  Polity  "  was  the  notorious  Parker,  immor- 
talized by  the  satire  of  Marvell.  This  political  apostate,  from  a  republican 
and  presbyterian,  became  a  furious  advocate  for  arbitrary  government  in 
church  and  state !  He  easily  won  the  favour  of  James  the  Second,  who 
made  him  bishop  of  Oxford !  His  principles  were  so  violent  that  Father 
Petre,  the  confessor  of  James,  made  sure  of  him!  This  letter  of  the 
rector  of  Kettering,  in  adopting  the  system  of  such  a  catholic  bishop,  con- 
firms my  suspicion,  that  toleration  is  condemned  as  an  evil  among  some 
protestants ! 


TOLERATION. 


U9 


difficulty  of  forming  a  clear  notion  of  toleration.  This 
learned  man,  after  having  been  ruined  by  the  religious  wars 
of  the  Netherlands,  found  an  honourable  retreat  in  a  pro- 
fessor's chair  at  Leyden,  and  without  difficulty  abjured 
papacy.  He  published  some  political  works  :  and  adopted  as 
his  great  principle,  that  only  one  religion  should  be  allowed 
to  a  people,  and  that  no  clemency  should  be  granted  to  non- 
conformists, who,  he  declares,  should  be  pursued  by  sword 
and  fire ;  in  this  manner  a  single  member  would  be  cut  off 
to  preserve  the  body  sound.  Ure,  seca — are  his  words. 
Strange  notions  these  in  a  protestant  republic ;  and,  in  fact, 
in  Holland  it  was  approving  of  all  the  horrors  of  their  op- 
pressors, the  Duke  d'Alva  and  Philip  the  Second,  from 
which  they  had  hardly  recovered.  It  was  a  principle  by 
which  we  must  inevitably  infer,  says  Bayle,  that  in  Holland 
no  other  mode  of  religious  belief  but  one  sect  should  be 
permitted ;  and  that  those  Pagans  who  had  hanged  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  gospel  had  done  what  they  ought.  Lipsius 
found  himself  sadly  embarrassed  when  refuted  by  Theodore 
Cornhert,*  the  firm  advocate  of  political  and  religious  free- 
dom, and  at  length  Lipsius,  that  protestant  with  a  catholic 
heart,  was  forced  to  eat  his  words,  like  Pistol  his  onion, 
declaring  that  the  two  objectionable  words,  ure,  seca,  were 
borrowed  from  medicine,  meaning  not  literally  fire  and  sword, 
but  a  strong  efficacious  remedy,  one  of  those  powerful  medi- 
cines to  expel  poison.  Jean  de  Serres,  a  warm  Huguenot, 
carried  the  principle  of  toleration  so  far  in  his  "  Inven- 
taire  generate  de  l'Histoire  de  France,"  as  to  blame  Charles 
Martel  for  compelling  the  Frisans,  whom  he  had  conquered, 
to  adopt  Christianity !  "  A  pardonable  zeal,"  he  observes, 
"  in  a  warrior ;  but  in  fact  the  minds  of  men  cannot  be  gained 
over  by  arms,  nor  that  religion  forced  upon  them,  which  must 

*  Cornhert  was  one  of  the  fathers  of  Dutch  literature,  and  even  of  their 
arts.  He  was  the  composer  of  the  great  national  air  of  William  of  Orange; 
he  was  too  a  famous  engraver,  the  master  of  Goltzius.  On  his  death-bed, 
he  was  still  writing  against  the  persecution  of  heretics. 


150 


TOLERATION. 


be  introduced  into  the  hearts  of  men  by  reason."  It  is 
curious  to  see  a  protestant,  in  his  zeal  for  toleration,  blaming 
a  king  for  forcing  idolaters  to  become  Christians ;  and  to 
have  found  an  opportunity  to  express  his  opinions  in  the 
dark  history  of  the  eighth  century,  is  an  instance  how  his- 
torians incorporate  their  passions  in  their  works,  and  view 
ancient  facts  with  modern  eyes. 

The  protestant  cannot  grant  toleration  to  the  catholic,  un- 
less the  catholic  ceases  to  be  a  papist ;  and  the  Arminian 
church,  which  opened  its  wide  bosom  to  receive  every  de- 
nomination of  Christians,  nevertheless  were  forced  to  exclude 
the  papists,  for  their  passive  obedience  to  the  supremacy  of 
the  Roman  pontiff.  The  catholic  has  curiously  told  us,  on 
this  word  toleration,  that  Ce  mot  devient  fort  en  usage  a 
mesure  que  le  nombre  des  tolerans  augmented  It  was  a  word 
which  seemed  of  recent  introduction,  though  the  book  is  mod- 
ern !  The  protestants  have  disputed  much  how  far  they 
might  tolerate,  or  whether  they  should  tolerate  at  all ;  "  a 
difficulty,"  triumphantly  exclaims  the  catholic,  "  which  they 
are  not  likely  ever  to  settle,  while  they  maintain  their  prin- 
ciples of  pretended  reformation  ;  the  consequences  which 
naturally  follow  excite  horror  to  the  Christian.  It  is  the 
weak  who  raise  such  outcries  for  toleration ;  the  strong  find 
authority  legitimate." 

A  religion  which  admits  not  of  toleration  cannot  be  safely 
tolerated,  if  there  is  any  chance  of  its  obtaining  a  political 
ascendancy. 

When  Priscillian  and  six  of  his  followers  were  condemned 
to  torture  and  execution  for  asserting  that  the  three  persons 
of  the  Trinity  were  to  be  considered  as  three  different  accep- 
tors of  the  same  being,  Saint  Ambrose  and  Saint  Martin 
asserted  the  cause  of  offended  humanity,  and  refused  to  com- 
municate with  the  bishops  who  had  called  out  for  the  blood 
of  the  Priscillianists ;  but  Cardinal  Baronius,  the  annalist 
of  the  church,  was  greatly  embarrassed  to  explain  how  men 
*  Dictionnaire  de  Trevoux  ad  vocem  Tolerance.    Printed  in  1771. 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE.  151 


of  real  purity  could  abstain  from  applauding  the  ardent  zeal 
of  the  persecution:  he  preferred  to  give  up  the  saints  rather 
than  to  allow  of  toleration — for  he  acknowledges  that  the 
toleration  which  these  saints  would  have  allowed  was  not 
exempt  from  sin.* 

In  the  preceding  article,  "  Political  Religionism,"  we  have 
shown  how  to  provide  against  the  possible  evil  of  the  tol- 
erated becoming  the  tolerators !  Toleration  has  been  sus- 
pected of  indifference  to  religion  itself;  but  with  sound  minds, 
it  is  only  an  indifference  to  the  logomachies  of  theology — 
things  "  not  of  God,  but  of  man,"  that  have  perished,  and  that 
are  perishing  around  us  ! 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE. 

An  original  document  now  lying  before  me,  the  autograph 
letter  of  Charles  the  Ninth,  will  prove,  that  the  unparalleled 
massacre,  called  by  the  world  religious,  was,  in  the  French 
cabinet,  considered  merely  as  political;  one  of  those  revolt- 
ing state  expedients  which  a  pretended  instant  necessity  has 
too  often  inflicted  on  that  part  of  a  nation  which,  like  the 
under-current,  subterraneously  works  its  way,  and  runs  coun- 
ter to  the  great  stream,  till  the  critical  moment  arrives  when 
one  or  the  other  must  cease. 

The  massacre  began  on  St.  Bartholomew  day,  in  August, 
1572,  lasted  in  France  during  seven  days  :  that  awful  event 
interrupted  the  correspondence  of  our  court  with  that  of 
France  ;  a  long  silence  ensued ;  the  one  did  not  dare  to  tell 
the  tale  which  the  other  could  not  listen  to.  But  sovereigns 
know  how  to  convert  a  mere  domestic  event  into  a  political 

*  Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Francais,  i.  41.  The  charactei  of  the  first  person 
who  intrxluced  civil  persecution  into  the  Christian  church  has  been  de- 
scribed by  Sulpicius  Severus.  See  Dr.  Maclaine's  note  in  his  translation 
of  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  i.  428. 


152         APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE. 


expedient.  Charles  the  Ninth,  on  the  birth  of  a  daughter, 
sent  over  an  ambassador  extraordinary  to  request  Elizabeth 
to  stand  as  sponsor :  by  this  the  French  monarch  obtained  a 
double  purpose  ;  it  served  to  renew  his  interrupted  inter- 
course with  the  silent  queen,  and  alarmed  the  French  protes- 
tants  by  abating  their  hopes,  which  long  rested  on  the  aid 
of  the  English  queen. 

The  following  letter,  dated  8th  February,  1573,  is  ad- 
dressed by  the  king  to  La  Motte  Fenelon,  his  resident 
ambassador  at  London.  The  king  in  this  letter  minutely 
details  a  confidential  intercourse  with  his  mother,  Catharine 
of  Medicis,  who,  perhaps,  may  have  dictated  this  letter  to  the 
secretary,  although  signed  by  the  king  with  his  own  hand.* 
Such  minute  particulars  could  only  have  been  known  to  her- 
self. The  Earl  of  Wolchester  (Worcester)  was  now  taking 
his  departure,  having  come  to  Paris  on  the  baptism  of  the 
princess  ;  and  accompanied  by  Walsingham,  our  re.-ident 
ambassador,  after  taking  leave  of  Charles,  had  the  following 
interview  with  Catharine  de  Medicis.  An  interview  with 
the  young  monarch  was  usually  concluded  by  a  separate  audi- 
ence with  his  mother,  who  probably  was  still  the  directress 
of  his  councils. 

The  French  court  now  renewed  their  favourite  project  of 
marrying  the  Duke  d'Alencon  with  Elizabeth.  They  had 
long  wished  to  settle  this  turbulent  spirit,  and  the  negotiation 
with  Elizabeth  had  been  broken  off  in  consequence  of  the 
massacre  at  Paris.  They  were  somewhat  uneasy  lest  he 
should  share  the  fate  of  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  who 

*  All  the  numerous  letters  which  I  have  seen  of  Charles  the  Ninth,  now 
in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Murray,  are  carefully  signed  by  himself,  and  I 
have  also  observed  postscripts  written  with  his  own  hand:  they  are  always 
countersigned  by  his  secretary.  I  mention  this  circumstance,  because,  in 
the  Didionnaire  Historique,  it  is  said  that  Charles,  who  died  young,  was  so 
given  up  to  the  amusements  of  his  age,  that  he  would  not  even  sign  his 
dispatches,  and  introduced  the  custom  of  secretaries  subscribing  for  the 
king.  This  voluminous  correspondence  shows  the  falsity  of  this  statement. 
History  is  too  often  composed  of  popular  tales  of  this  stamp. 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE. 


153 


had  not  long  before  been  expedited  on  the  same  fruitless 
errand ;  and  Elizabeth  had  already  objected  to  the  disparity 
of  their  ages,  the  Duke  of  Alencon  being  only  seventeen,  and 
the  maiden  queen  six-and-thirty ;  but  Catharine  observed, 
that  D' Alencon  was  only  one  year  younger  than  his  brother, 
against  whom  this  objection  had  not  occurred  to  Elizabeth, 
for  he  had  been  sent  back  upon  another  pretext — some  diffi- 
culty which  the  queen  had  contrived  about  his  performing 
mass  in  his  own  house. 

After  Catharine  de  Medicis  had  assured  the  Earl  of  Wor- 
cester of  her  great  affection  for  the  Queen  of  England,  and 
her  and  the  king's  strict  intention  to  preserve  it,  and  that 
they  were  therefore  desirous  of  this  proposed  marriage 
taking  place,  she  took  this  opportunity  of  inquiring  of  the 
Earl  of  Worcester  the  cause  of  the  queen  his  mistress's 
marked  coolness  toward  them.  The  narrative  becomes  now 
dramatic. 

"  On  this  Walsingham,  who  kept  always  close  by  the  side 
of  the  count,  here  took  on  himself  to  answer,  acknowledging 
that  the  said  count  had  indeed  been  charged  to  speak  on  this 
head ;  and  he  then  addressed  some  words  in  English  to 
Worcester.  And  afterwards  the  count  gave  to  my  lady  and 
mother  to  understand,  that  the  queen  his  mistress  had  been 
waiting  for  an  answer  on  two  articles  ;  the  one  concerning 
religion,  and  the  other  for  an  interview.  My  lady  and 
mother  instantly  replied,  that  she  had  never  heard  any  arti- 
cles mentioned,  on  which  she  would  not  have  immediately 
satisfied  the  Sieur  Walsingham,  who  then  took  up  the  word ; 
first  observing  that  the  count  was  not  accustomed  to  business 
of  this  nature,  but  that  he  himself  knew  for  certain  that  the 
cause  of  this  negotiation  for  marriage  not  being  more  ad- 
vanced, was  really  these  two  unsettled  points  :  that  his  mis- 
tress still  wished  that  the  point  of  religion  should  be  cleared 
up  ;  for  that  they  concluded  in  England  that  this  business 
was  designed  only  to  amuse  and  never  to  be  completed  (as 
happened  in  that  of  my  brother  the  Duke  of  Anjou)  ;  and 


154 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE. 


the  other  point  concerned  the  interview  between  my  brother 
the  Duke  of  Alencon ;  because  some  letters  which  may  have 
been  written  between  the  parties  *  in  such  sort  of  matters, 
could  not  have  the  same  force  which  the  sight  and  presence 
of  both  the  persons  would  undoubtedly  have.  But,  he  added, 
another  thing,  which  had  also  greatly  retarded  this  business, 
was  what  had  happened  lately  in  this  kingdom  ;  and  during 
such  troubles,  proceeding  from  religion,  it  could  not  have 
been  well  timed  to  have  spoken  with  them  concerning  the 
said  marriage  ;  and  that  himself  and  those  of  his  nation  had 
been  in  great  fear  in  this  kingdom,  thinking  that  we  intended 
to  extirpate  all  those  of  the  said  religion.  On  this,  my  lady 
and  mother  answered  him  instantly  and  in  order :  That  she 
was  certain  that  the  queen  his  mistress  could  never  like  nor 
value  a  prince  who  had  not  his  religion  at  heart ;  and  who- 
ever would  desire  to  have  this  otherwise,  would  be  depriving 
him  of  what  we  hold  dearest  in  this  world  ;  That  he  might 
recollect  that  my  brother  had  always  insisted  on  the  freedom 
of  religion,  and  that  it  was  from  the  difficulty  of  its  public 
exercise,  which  he  always  insisted  on,  which  had  broken  off 
this  negotiation  :  the  Duke  d'Alencon  will  be  satisfied  when 
this  point  is  agreed  on,  and  will  hasten  over  to  the  queen, 
persuaded  that  she  will  not  occasion  him  the  pain  and  the 
shame  of  passing  over  the  seas  without  happily  terminating 
this  affair.  In  regard  to  what  has  occurred  these  latter  days, 
that  he  must  have  seen  how  it  happened  by  the  fault  of  the 
chiefs  of  those  who  remained  here;  for  when  the  late  admiral 
was  treacherously  wounded  at  Notre  Dame,  he  knew  the 
affliction  it  threw  us  into  (fearful  that  it  might  have  occa- 
sioned great  troubles  in  this  kingdom),  and  the  diligence  we 
used  to  verify  judicially  whence  it  proceeded;  and  the  veri- 

*  These  love-letters  of  Alencon  to  our  Elizabeth  are  noticed  by  Camden, 
■who  observes,  that  the  queen  became  wearied  by  receiving  so  many;  and 
to  put  an  end  to  this  trouble,  she  consented  that  the  young  duke  should 
come  over,  conditionally,  that  he  should  not  be  offended  if  her  suitor  should 
return  home  suitless. 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE. 


155 


fication  was  nearly  finished,  when  they  were  so  forgetful,  as 
to  raise  a  conspiracy,  to  attempt  the  lives  of  myself,  my  lady 
and  mother,  and  my  brothers,  and  endanger  the  whole  state ; 
which  was  the  cause,  that  to  avoid  this,  I  was  compelled,  to 
my  very  great  regret,  to  permit  what  had  happened  in  this 
city ;  but  as  he  had  witnessed,  I  gave  orders  to  stop,  as  soon 
as  possible,  this  fury  of  the  people,  and  place  every  one  in 
repose.  On  this,  the  Sieur  Walsingham  replied  to  my  lady 
and  mother,  that  the  exercise  of  the  said  religion  had  been 
interdicted  in  this  kingdom.  To  which  she  also  answered, 
that  this  had  not  been  done  but  for  a  good  and  holy  purpose ; 
namely,  that  the  fury  of  the  catholic  people  might  the  sooner 
be  allayed,  who  else  had  been  reminded  of  the  past  calami- 
ties, and  would  again  have  been  let  loose  against  those  of 
the  said  religion,  had  they  continued  to  preach  in  this  king- 
dom. Also  should  these  once  more  fix  on  any  chiefs,  which 
I  will  prevent  as  much  as  possible,  giving  him  clearly  and 
pointedly  to  understand,  that  what  is  done  here  is  much  the 
same  as  what  has  been  done,  and  is  now  practised  by  the 
queen  his  mistress  in  her  kingdom.  For  she  permits  the 
exercise  but  of  one  religion,  although  there  are  many  of  her 
people  who  are  of  another ;  and  having  also,  during  her  reign, 
punished  those  of  her  subjects  whom  she  found  seditious  and 
rebellious.  It  is  true  this  has  been  done  by  the  laws,  but  I 
indeed  could  not  act  in  the  same  manner  ;  for  finding  myself 
in  such  imminent  peril,  and  the  conspiracy  raised  against  me 
and  mine,  and  my  kingdom,  ready  to  be  executed,  I  had  no 
time  to  arraign  and  try  in  open  justice  as  much  as  I  wished, 
but  was  constrained,  to  my  very  great  regret,  to  strike  the 
blow  (lascher  le  main)  in  what  has  been  done  in  this  city." 

This  letter  of  Charles  the  Ninth,  however,  does  not  here 
conclude.  "  My  lady  and  mother  "  plainly  acquaints  the  Earl 
of  Worcester  and  Sir  Francis  Walsingham,  that  her  son  had 
never  interfered  between  their  mistress  and  her  subjects,  and 
in  return  expects  the  same  favour ;  although,  by  accounts 
they  had  received  from  England,  many  ships  were  arming  to 


156         APOLOGY  FOR  THE  PARISIAN  MASSACRE. 


assist  their  rebels  at  Rochelle.  "  My  lady  and  mother  "  ad- 
vances another  step,  and  declares  that  Elizabeth  by  treaty  is 
bound  to  assist  her  son  against  his  rebellious  subjects ;  and 
they  expect,  at  least,  that  Elizabeth  will  not  only  stop  these 
armaments  in  all  her  ports,  but  exemplarily  punish  the  offend- 
ers.   I  resume  the  letter. 

"And  on  hearing  this,  the  said  Walsingham  changed  col- 
our, and  appeared  somewhat  astonished,  as  my  lady  and 
mother  well  perceived  by  his  face  ;  and  on  this  he  requested 
the  Count  of  Worcester  to  mention  the  order  which  he  knew 
the  queen  his  mistress  had  issued  to  prevent  these  people 
from  assisting  those  of  La  Rochelle ;  but  that  in  England,  so 
numerous  were  the  seamen  and  others  who  gained  their  live- 
lihood by  maritime  affairs,  and  who  would  starve  without  the 
entire  freedom  of  the  seas,  that  it  was  impossible  to  interdict 
them." 

Charles  the  Ninth  incloses  the  copy  of  a  letter  he  had 
received  from  London,  in  part  agreeing  with  an  account  the 
ambassador  had  sent  to  the  king,  of  an  English  expedition 
nearly  ready  to  sail  for  La  Rochelle,  to  assist  his  rebellious 
subjects.  He  is  still  further  alarmed,  that  Elizabeth  foments 
the  wartegeux,  and  assists  underhand  the  discontented.  He 
urges  the  ambassador  to  hasten  to  the  queen,  to  impart  these 
complaints  in  the  most  friendly  way,  as  he  knows  the  ambas- 
sador can  well  do,  and  as,  no  doubt,  Walsingham  will  have 
already  prepared  her  to  receive.  Charles  entreats  Elizabeth 
to  prove  her  good  faith  by  deeds  and  not  by  words ;  to  act 
openly  on  a  point  which  admits  of  no  dissimulation.  The 
best  proof  of  her  friendship  will  be  the  marriage ;  and  the 
ambassador,  after  opening  this  business  to  her  chief  ministers, 
who  the  king  thinks  are  desirous  of  this  projected  marriage, 
is  then  "to  acquaint  the  queen  with  what  has  passed  between 
her  ambassadors  and  myself." 

Such  is  the  first  letter  on  English  affairs  which  Charles  the 
Ninth  dispatched  to  his  ambassador,  after  an  awful  silence  of 
6ix  months,  during  which  time  La  Motte  Fenelon  was  not 


PREDICTION.  157 

admitted  into  the  presence  of  Elizabeth.  The  apology  for 
the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  comes  from  the  king  him- 
self, and  contains  several  remarkable  expressions,  which  are 
at  least  divested  of  that  style  of  bigotry  and  exultation  we 
might  have  expected :  on  the  contrary,  this  sanguinary  and 
inconsiderate  young  monarch,  as  he  is  represented,  writes  in 
a  subdued  and  sorrowing  tone,  lamenting  his  hard  necessity, 
regretting  he  could  not  have  recourse  to  the  laws,  and  appeal- 
ing to  others  for  his  efforts  to  check  the  fury  of  the  people, 
which  he  himself  had  let  loose.  Catharine  de  Medicis,  who 
had  governed  him  from  the  tender  age  of  eleven  years,  when 
he  ascended  the  throne,  might  unquestionably  have  persuaded 
him  that  a  conspiracy  was  on  the  point  of  explosion.  Charles 
the  Ninth  died  young,  and  his  character  is  unfavourably 
viewed  by  the  historians.  In  the  voluminous  correspondence 
which  I  have  examined,  could  we  judge  by  state  letters  of 
the  character  of  him  who  subscribes  them,  we  must  form  a 
very  different  notion ;  they  are  so  prolix,  and  so  earnest,  that 
one  might  conceive  they  were  dictated  by  the  young  monarch 
himself ! 


PREDICTION. 

In  a  curious  treatise  on  "  Divination,"  or  the  knowledge 
of  future  events,  Cicero  has  preserved  a  complete  account  of 
the  state-contrivances  which  were  practised  by  the  Roman 
government,  to  instil  among  the  people  those  hopes  and  fears 
by  which  they  regulated  public  opinion.  The  pagan  creed, 
now  become  obsolete  and  ridiculous,  has  occasioned  this 
treatise  to  be  rarely  consulted ;  it  remains,  however,  as  a 
chapter  in  the  history  of  man  ! 

To  these  two  books  of  Cicero  on  "  Divination,"  perhaps  a 
third  might  be  added,  on  political  and  moral  prediction. 
The  principles  which  may  even  raise  it  into  a  science  are 


158 


PREDICTION. 


self-evident ;  they  are  drawn  from  the  heart  of  man,  and  they 
depend  on  the  nature  and  connection  of  human  events !  We 
presume  we  shall  demonstrate  the  positive  existence  of  such 
a  faculty  ;  a  faculty  which  Lord  Bacon  describes  of  "  making 
things  future  and  remote  as  present."  The  aruspex, 
the  augur,  and  the  astrologer,  have  vanished  with  their  own 
superstitions ;  but  the  moral  and  the  political  predictor,  pro- 
ceeding on  principles  authorized  by  nature  and  experience, 
has  become  more  skilful  in  his  observations  on  the  pheno- 
mena of  human  history;  and  it  has  often  happened 
that  a  tolerable  philosopher  has  not  made  an  indifferent 
prophet. 

No  great  political  or  moral  revolution  has  occurred  which 
has  not  been  accompanied  by  its  prognostic;  and  men  of  a 
philosophic  cast  of  mind  in  their  retirement,  freed  from  the 
delusions  of  parties  and  of  sects,  at  once  intelligent  in  the 
quicquid  agunt  homines,  while  they  are  withdrawn  from  their 
conflicting  interests,  have  rarely  been  confounded  by  the 
astonishment  which  overwhelms  those  who,  absorbed  in  active 
life,  are  the  mere  creatures  of  sensation,  agitated  by  the 
shadows  of  truth,  the  unsubstantial  appearances  of  things! 
Intellectual  nations  are  advancing  in  an  eternal  circle  of 
events  and  passions  which  succeed  each  other,  and  the  last  is 
necessarily  connected  with  its  antecedent ;  the  solitary  force 
of  some  fortuitous  incident  only  can  interrupt  this  concate- 
nated progress  of  human  affairs. 

That  every  great  event  has  been  accompanied  by  a  pres- 
age or  prognostic,  has  been  observed  by  Lord  Bacon.  "  The 
shepherds  of  the  people  should  understand  the  prognostics 
of  state-tempests ;  hollow  blasts  of  wind  seemingly  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  secret  swellings  of  the  sea,  often  precede  a  storm." 
Such  were  the  prognostics  discerned  by  the  politic  Bishop 
Williams  in  Charles  the  First's  time,  who  clearly  foresaw 
and  predicted  the  final  success  of  the  Puritanic  party  in  our 
country ;  attentive  to  his  own  security,  he  abandoned  the 
government  and  sided  with  the  rising  opposition,  at  the 


PREDICTION. 


159 


moment  when  such  a  change  in  public  affairs  was  by  no 
means  apparent.* 

In  this  spirit  of  foresight  our  contemplative  antiquary 
Dugdale  must  have  anticipated  the  scene  which  was  ap- 
proaching in  1641,  in  the  destruction  of  our  ancient  monu- 
ments in  cathedral  churches.  He  hurried  on  his  itinerant 
labours  of  taking  draughts  and  transcribing  inscriptions,  as 
he  says,  "  to  preserve  them  for  future  and  better  times/' 
Posterity  owes  to  the  prescient  spirit  of  Dugdale  the  ancient 
Monuments  of  England,  which  bear  the  marks  of  the  haste, 
as  well  as  the  zeal,  which  have  perpetuated  them. 

Continental  writers  formerly  employed  a  fortunate  ex- 
pression, when  they  wished  to  have  an  Historia  Reforma- 
tionis  ante  Reformationem :  this  history  of  the  Reformation 
would  have  commenced  at  least  a  century  before  the  Refor- 
mation itself!  A  letter  from  Cardinal  Julian  to  Pope 
Eugenius  the  Fourth,  written  a  century  before  Luther  ap- 
peared, clearly  predicts  the  Reformation  and  its  conse- 
quences. He  observed  that  the  minds  of  men  were  ripe  for 
something  tragical ;  he  felt  the  axe  striking  at  the  root,  and 
the  tree  beginning  to  bend,  and  that  his  party,  instead  of 
propping  it,  were  hastening  its  fall.f  In  England,  Sir 
Thomas  More  was  not  less  prescient  in  his  views ;  for  when 
his  son  Roper  was  observing  to  him,  that  the  Catholic 
religion,  under  "  the  Defender  of  the  Faith,"  was  in  a  most 
flourishing  state,  the  answer  of  More  was  an  evidence  of 
political  foresight, — "  Truth,  it  is,  son  Roper !  and  yet  I  pray 
God  that  we  may  not  live  to  see  the  day  that  we  would 
gladly  be  at  league  and  composition  with  heretics,  to  let  them 
have  their  churches  quietly  to  themselves,  so  that  they  would 
be  contented  to  let  us  have  ours  quietly  to  ourselves." 
Whether  our  great  chancellor  predicted  from  a  more  inti- 

*  See  Rushworth,  vol.  i.  p.  420.    His  language  was  decisive. 

t  This  letter  is  in  the  works  of  iEneas  Sylvius ;  a  copious  extract  is 
given  by  Bossuet,  in  his  "  Variations."  See  also  Mosheim,  Ce:it.  xiii 
part  ii.  chap.  2,  note  m. 


160 


PREDICTION. 


mate  knowledge  of  the  king's  character,  or  from  some 
private  circumstances  which  may  not  have  been  recorded 
for  our  information,  of  which  I  have  an  obscure  suspicion, 
remains  to  be  ascertained.  The  minds  of  men  of  great 
political  sagacity  were  unquestionably  at  that  moment  full  of 
obscure  indications  of  the  approaching  change;  Erasmus, 
when  at  Canterbury  before  the  tomb  of  Becket,  observing  it 
loaded  with  a  vast  profusion  of  jewels,  wished  that  those  had 
been  distributed  among  the  poor,  and  that  the  shrine  had 
been  only  adorned  with  boughs  and  flowers  ;  "  For,"  said  he, 
"those  who  have  heaped  up  all  this  mass  of  treasure  will 
one  day  be  plundered,  and  fall  a  prey  to  those  who  are  in 
power  ;  " — a  prediction  literally  fulfilled  about  twenty  years 
after  it  was  made.  The  unknown  author  of  the  Visions  of 
Piers  Ploughman,  who  wrote  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Third,  surprised  the  world  by  a  famous  prediction  of  the  fall 
of  the  religious  houses  from  the  hand  of  a  king.  The  event 
was  realized,  two  hundred  years  afterwards,  by  our  Henry 
the  Eighth.  The  protestant  writers  have  not  scrupled  to 
declare,  that  in  this  instance  he  was  divino  numine  afflatus. 
But  moral  and  political  prediction  is  not  inspiration ;  the  one 
may  be  wrought  out  by  man,  the  other  descends  from  God. 
The  same  principle  which  led  Erasmus  to  predict  that  those 
who  were  "in  power"  would  destroy  the  rich  shrines, 
because  no  other  class  of  men  in  society  could  mate  with  so 
mighty  a  body  as  the  monks,  conducted  the  author  of  Piers 
Ploughman  to  the  same  conclusion  ;  and  since  power  only 
could  accomplish  that  great  purpose,  he  fixed  on  the  highest 
as  the  most  likely ;  and  thus  the  wise  prediction  was,  so  long 
after,  literally  accomplished ! 

Sir  Walter  Rawleigh  foresaw  the  future  consequences  of 
the  separatists  and  the  sectaries  in  the  national  church,  and 
the  very  scene  his  imagination  raised  in  1530  has  been  ex- 
hibited, to  the  letter  of  his  description,  two  centuries  after 
the  prediction  !  His  memorable  words  are,  "Time  will  even 
bring  it  to  pass,  if  it  were  not  resisted,  that  God  would  be 


PKEDICTION. 


161 


turned  out  of  churches  into  barns,  and  from  thence  again  into 
the  fields  and  mountains,  and  under  hedges — all  order  of 
discipline  and  church-government  left  to  newness  of  opinion 
and  men's  fancies,  and  as  many  kinds  of  religion  spring  up 
as  there  are  parish-churches  within  England."  We  are 
struck  by  the  profound  genius  of  Tacitus,  who  clearly  fore- 
saw the  calamities  which  so  long  ravaged  Europe  on  the  fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  a  work  written  five  hundred  years 
before  the  event!  In  that  sublime  anticipation  of  the  future, 
he  observed,  "  When  the  Romans  shall  be  hunted  out  from 
those  countries  which  they  have  conquered,  what  will  then 
happen  ?  The  revolted  people,  freed  from  their  master 
oppressor,  will  not  be  able  to  subsist  without  destroying  their 
neighbours,  and  the  most  cruel  wars  will  exist  among  all 
these  nations." 

We  are  told  that  Solon  at  Athens,  contemplating  on  the 
port  and  citadel  of  Munychia,  suddenly  exclaimed,  "How 
blind  is  man  to  futurity !  Could  the  Athenians  foresee  what 
mischief  this  will  do  their  city,  they  would  even  eat  it  with 
their  own  teeth,  to  get  rid  of  it !  " — a  prediction  verified  more 
than  two  hundred  years  afterwards !  Thales  desired  to  be 
buried  in  an  obscure  quarter  of  Milesia,  observing  that  that 
very  spot  would  in  time  be  the  forum.  Charlemagne,  in  his 
old  age,  observing  from  the  window  of  a  castle  a  Norman 
descent  on  his  coast,  tears  started  in  the  eyes  of  the  aged 
monarch.  He  predicted  that  since  they  dared  to  threaten 
his  dominions  while  he  was  yet  living,  what  would  they  do 
when  he  should  be  no  more ! — a  melancholy  prediction,  says 
De  Foix,  of  their  subsequent  incursions,  and  of  the  pro- 
tracted calamities  of  the  French  nation  during  a  whole 
century ! 

There  seems  to  be  something  in  minds,  which  take  in  ex- 
tensive views  of  human  nature,  which  serves  them  as  a  kind 
of  divination,  and  the  consciousness  of  this  faculty  has  even 
been  asserted  by  some.  Cicero  appeals  to  Atticus,  how  he 
had  always  judged  of  the  affairs  of  the  republic  as  a  good 

VOL.  IV.  11 


162 


PREDICTION. 


diviner ;  and  that  its  overthrow  had  happened,  as  he  had 
foreseen,  fourteen  years  before.*  Cicero  had  not  only  pre- 
dicted what  happened  in  his  own  times,  but  also  what 
occurred  long  after,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Cornelius 
Nepos.  The  philosopher,  indeed,  affects  no  secret  revelation, 
nor  visionary  second-sight ;  he  honestly  tells  us  that  this  art 
had  been  acquired  merely  by  study  and  the  administration 
of  public  affairs,  while  he  reminds  his  friend  of  several 
remarkable  instances  of  his  successful  predictions.  "  I  do 
not  divine  human  events  by  the  arts  practised  by  the  augurs, 
but  I  use  other  signs."  Cicero  then  expresses  himself  with 
the  guarded  obscurity  of  a  philosopher  who  could  not  openly 
ridicule  the  prevailing  superstitions ;  but  we  perfectly  com- 
prehend the  nature  of  his  "  signs,"  when,  in  the  great  pending 
event  of  the  rival  conflicts  of  Pompey  and  of  Caesar,  he 
shows  the  means  he  used  for  his  purpose.  "  On  one  side  I 
consider  the  humour  and  genius  of  Caesar,  and  on  the  other 
the  condition  and  the  manner  of  civil  wars."f  In  a  word, 
the  political  diviner  foretold  events  by  their  dependence  on 
general  causes,  while  the  moral  diviner,  by  his  experience  of 
the  personal  character,  anticipated  the  actions  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Others,  too,  have  asserted  the  possession  of  this 
faculty.  Du  Vair,  a  famous  chancellor  of  France,  imagined 
the  faculty  was  intuitive  with  him :  by  his  own  experience  he 
had  observed  the  results  of  this  curious  and  obscure  faculty, 
and  at  a  time  when  the  history  of  the  human  mind  was  so 
imperfectly  comprehended,  it  is  easy  to  account  for  the 
apparent  egotism  of  this  grave  and  dignified  character. 
"  Born,"  says  he,  "  with  constitutional  infirmity,  a  mind  and 
body  but  ill  adapted  to  be  laborious,  with  a  most  treacherous 
memory,  enjoying  no  gift  of  nature,  yet  able  at  all  times  to 
exercise  a  sagacity  so  great,  that  I  do  not  know,  since  I  have 
reached  manhood,  that  any  thing  of  importance  has  happened 
to  the  state,  to  the  public,  or  to  myself  in  particular,  which  I 

*  Ep.  ad  Att.  Lib.  x.  Ep.  4. 
t  Ep.  ad  Att.    Lib.  vi.  Ep.  6. 


PREDICTION. 


163 


had  not  foreseen."  *  This  faculty  seems  to  be  described  by 
a  remarkable  expression  employed  by  Thucydides  in  his 
character  of  Themistocles,  of  which  the  following  is  given  as 
a  close  translation :  "  By  a  species  of  sagacity  peculiarly 
his  own,  for  which  he  was  in  no  degree  indebted  either  to 
early  education  or  after  study,  he  was  supereminently  happy 
in  forming  a  prompt  judgment  in  matters  that  admitted  but 
little  time  for  deliberation ;  at  the  same  time  that  he  far  sur- 
passed all  in  his  deductions  of  the  future  from  the  past  ;  or 
was  the  best  guesser  of  the  future  from  the  past."  |  Should 
this  faculty  of  moral  and  political  prediction  be  ever  con- 
sidered as  a  science,  we  can  even  furnish  it  with  a  denomina- 
tion ;  for  the  writer  of  the  life  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  pre- 
fixed to  his  works,  in  claiming  the  honour  of  it  for  that 
philosopher,  calls  it  "the  Stochastic,"  a  term  derived  from 
the  Greek  and  from  archery,  meaning,  "  to  shoot  at  a  mark." 
This  eminent  genius,  it  seems,  often  "  hit  the  white."  Our 
biographer  declares,  that  "  though  he  were  no  prophet,  yet  in 
that  faculty  which  comes  nearest  to  it,  he  excelled,  i.  e.  the 
Stochastic,  wherein  he  was  seldom  mistaken  as  to  future 
events,  as  well  public  as  private." 

We  are  not,  indeed,  inculcating  the  fanciful  elements  of  an 
occult  art.  We  know  whence  its  principles  may  be  drawn  ; 
and  we  may  observe  how  it  was  practised  by  the  wisest 
among  the  ancients.  Aristotle,  who  collected  all  the  curious 
knowledge  of  his  times,  has  preserved  some  remarkable 
opinions  on  the  art  of  divination.  In  detailing  the  various 
subterfuges  practised  by  the  pretended  diviners  of  his  day, 
he  reveals  the  secret  principle  by  which  one  of  them  regu- 
lated his  predictions.  He  frankly  declared  that  the  future 
being  always  very  obscure,  while  the  past  was  easy  to  know, 

*  This  remarkable  confession  I  find  in  Menage's  Observations  sur  la 
Langue  Francoise,  Part  II.  p.  110. 

t  Oiice'ia  yap  t-vveoei,  Kal  aire  7rpojj.a&cbv  eg  avrrjv  ovdev,  ovt'  eiupa&uv^ 
tuv  re  napaxpr/fia  6V  eXaxioTqg  fiovTifje  KparioTOC  yvupuv,  koI  tuv  iizKkbv- 
tg>v  kmTTTiclarov  rov  yev7]ao{j.ivov  apioToe  elmoTrjc. — Thucydides,  lib.  i.  c 
138. 


164 


PREDICTION. 


his  predictions  had  never  the  future  in  view  ;  for  he  decided 
from  the  past  as  it  appeared  in  human  affair.-,  which,  how- 
ever, lie  concealed  from  the  multitude.*  Such  is  the  true 
principle  by  which  a  philosophical  historian  may  become  a 
skilful  diviner. 

Human  affairs  make  themselves  ;  they  grow  out  of  one 
another,  with  slight  variations  ;  and  thus  it  is  that  they  usu- 
ally happen  as  they  have  happened.  The  necessary  de- 
pendence of  effects  on  causes,  and  the  similarity  of  human 
interests  and  human  passions,  are  confirmed  by  comparative 
parallels  with  the  past.  The  philosophic  sage  of  holy  writ 
truly  deduced  the  important  principle,  that  "the  thing  that 
hath  been  is  that  which  shall  be."  The  vital  facts  of  history, 
deadened  by  the  touch  of  chronological  antiquarianism.  are 
restored  to  animation  when  we  comprehend  the  principles 
which  necessarily  terminate  in  certain  results,  and  discover 
the  characters  among  mankind  who  are  the  usual  actors  in 
these  scenes.  The  heart  of  man  beats  on  the  same  eternal 
springs ;  and  whether  he  advances  or  retrogrades,  he  cannot 
escape  out  of  the  march  of  human  thought.  Hence,  in  the 
most  extraordinary  revolutions,  we  discover  that  the  time 
and  the  place  only  have  changed  ;  for  even  when  events  are 
not  strictly  parallel,  we  detect  the  same  conducting  principles. 
Scipio  Ammirato,  one  of  the  great  Italian  historians,  in  his 
curious  discourses  on  Tacitus,  intermingles  ancient  examples 
with  the  modern ;  that,  he  says,  all  may  see  how  the  truth 
of  things  is  not  altered  by  the  changes  and  diversities  of  time. 
Machiavel  drew  his  illustrations  of  modern  history  from  the 
ancient. 

When  the  French  revolution  recalled  our  attention  to  a 
similar  eventful  period  in  our  own  history,  the  neglected 
volumes  which  preserved  the  public  and  private  history  of 
our  Charles  the  First  and  Cromwell,  were  collected  with 
eager  curiosity.  Often  the  scene  existing  before  us,  even 
the  very  personages  themselves,  opened  on  us  in  these  for- 
*  Arist.  Rhet.  lib.  vii.  c  5. 


PREDICTION. 


165 


gotten  pages.  But  as  the  annals  of  human  nature  did  not 
commence  with  those  of  Charles  the  First,  we  took  a  still 
more  retrograde  step,  and  it  was  discovered  in  this  wider 
range,  that  in  the  various  governments  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
the  events  of  those  times  had  been  only  reproduced.  Among 
them  the  same  principles  had  terminated  in  the  same  results, 
and  the  same  personages  had  figured  in  the  same  drama. 
This  strikingly  appeared  in  a  little  curious  volume,  entitled, 
"  Essai  sur  l'Histoire  de  la  Revolution  Francoise,  par  une 
Societe  d'Auteurs  Latins,"  published  at  Paris  in  1801.  This 
"  Society  of  Latin  Authors,"  who  have  written  so  inimitably 
the  history  of  the  French  revolution,  consist  of  the  Roman 
historians  themselves !  By  extracts  ingeniously  applied,  the 
events  of  that  melancholy  period  are  so  appositely  described, 
indeed  so  minutely  narrated,  that  they  will  not  fail  to  surprise 
those  who  are  not  accustomed  to  detect  the  perpetual  paral- 
lels which  we  meet  with  in  philosophical  history. 

Many  of  these  crises  in  history  are  close  resemblances  of 
each  other.  Compare  the  history  of  "The  League"  in 
France  with  that  of  our  own  civil  wars.  We  are  struck  by 
similar  occurrences  performed  by  the  same  political  charac- 
ters who  played  their  part  on  both  those  great  theatres  of 
human  action.  A  satirical  royalist  of  those  times  has  com- 
memorated the  motives,  the  incidents,  and  the  personages  in 
the  "  Satire  Menippee  de  la  Vertu  du  Catholicon  d'Es- 
pagne ; "  and  this  famous  "  Satire  Menippee "  is  a  perfect 
Hudibras  in  prose  !  The  writer  discovers  all  the  bitter  ridicule 
of  Butler  in  his  ludicrous  and  severe  exhibition  of  the  "  Etats 
de  Paris,"  while  the  artist  who  designed  the  satirical  prints 
becomes  no  contemptible  Hogarth.  So  much  are  these  public 
events  alike  in  their  general  spirit  and  termination,  that  they 
have  afforded  the  subject  of  a  printed  but  unpublished  volume, 
entitled  "  Essai  sur  les  Revolutions."  *    The  whole  work 

*  This  work  was  printed  in  London  as  a  Jirst  volume,  but  remained 
unpublished.  This  singularly  curious  production  was  suppressed,  but 
reprinted  at  Paris.    It  has  suffered  the  most  cruel  mutilations.    I  read 


166 


PREDICTION. 


was  modelled  on  this  principle.  "  It  would  be  possible,"  says 
the  eloquent  writer,  "  to  frame  a  table  or  chart  in  which  aU 
the  given  imaginable  events  of  the  history  of  a  people  would 
be  reduced  to  a  mathematical  exactness."  The  conception 
is  fanciful,  but  its  foundation  lies  deep  in  truth. 

A  remarkable  illustration  of  the  secret  principle  divulged 
by  Aristotle,  and  described  by  Thucydides,  appears  in  the 
recent  confession  of  a  man  of  genius  among  ourselves.  When 
Mr.  Coleridge  was  a  political  writer  in  the  Morning  Post  and 
Courier,  at  a  period  of  darkness  and  utter  confusion,  that 
writer  was  then  conducted  by  a  tract  of  light,  not  revealed  to 
ordinary  journalists,  on  the  Napoleonic  empire.  "  Of  that 
despotism  in  masquerade  "  he  decided  by  "  the  state  of  Rome 
under  the  first  Caesars  ; "  and  of  the  Spanish  American  Rev- 
olution, by  taking  the  war  of  the  United  Provinces  with 
Philip  the  Second,  as  the  groundwork  of  the  comparison. 
"  On  every  great  occurrence,"  he  says,  "  I  endeavoured  to 
discover,  in  past  history,  the  event  that  most  nearly  re- 
sembled it.  I  procured  the  contemporary  historians,  memo- 
rialists, and  pamphleteers.  Then  fairly  subtracting  the  points 
of  difference  from  those  of  likeness,  as  the  balance  favoured 
the  former  or  the  latter,  I  conjectured  that  the  result  would 
be  the  same  or  different.  In  the  essays  '  On  the  probable 
final  Restoration  of  the  Bourbons,'  I  feel  myself  authorized 
to  affirm,  by  the  effect  produced  on  many  intelligent  men, 
that  were  the  dates  wanting,  it  might  have  been  suspected 
that  the  essays  had  been  written  within  the  last  twelve 
months."  * 

In  moral  predictions  on  individuals,  many  have  discovered 
the  future  character.  The  revolutionary  character  of  Cardi- 
nal de  Retz,  even  in  his  youth,  was  detected  by  the  sagacity 

with  surprise  and  instruction,  the  single  copy  which  I  was  assured  was 
the  only  one  saved  from  the  havoc  of  the  entire  edition.  The  writer  was 
the  celebrated  Chateaubriand. 

*  Biographia  Literaria,  or  Biographical  Sketches  of  my  Literary  Life 
and  Opinions.    By  S.  T.  Coleridge,  Esq.  1807.  Vol.  i.  p.  214. 


PREDICTION. 


167 


of  Mazarin.  He  then  wrote  the  history  of  the  conspiracy 
of  Fiesco  with  such  vehement  admiration  of  his  hero,  that  the 
Italian  politician,  after  its  perusal,  predicted  that  the  young 
author  would  he  one  of  the  most  turbulent  spirits  of  the  age ! 
The  father  of  Marshal  Biron,  even  amid  the  glory  of  his  son, 
discovered  the  cloud  which,  invisible  to  others,  was  to  ob- 
scure it.  The  father,  indeed,  well  knew  the  fiery  passions 
of  his  son.  "  Biron,"  said  the  domestic  seer,  "  I  advise  thee, 
when  peace  takes  place,  to  go  and  plant  cabbages  in  thy  gar- 
den, otherwise  I  warn  thee,  thou  wilt  lose  thy  head  on  a 
scaffold  ! "  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  had  studied  the  temper  of 
his  son  Piero  ;  for  Guicciardini  informs  us,  that  he  had  often 
complained  to  his  most  intimate  friends,  that  "  he  foresaw  the 
imprudence  and  arrogance  of  his  son  would  occasion  the 
ruin  of  his  family."  There  is  a  remarkable  prediction  of 
James  the  First,  of  the  evils  likely  to  ensue  from  Laud's 
violence,  in  a  conversation  given  by  Hacket,  which  the  king 
held  with  Archbishop  Williams.  When  the  king  was  hard 
pressed  to  promote  Laud,  he  gave  his  reasons  why  he  in- 
tended to  "  keep  Laud  back  from  all  place  of  rule  and  au- 
thority, because  I  find  he  hath  a  restless  spirit,  and  cannot 
see  when  matters  are  well,  but  loves  to  toss  and  change,  and 
to  bring  things  to  a  pitch  of  reformation  floating  in  his  own 
brain,  which  endangers  the  steadfastness  of  that  which  is  in 
a  good  pass.  I  speak  not  at  random  ;  he  hath  made  himself 
known  to  me  to  be  such  an  one."  James  then  gives  the  cir- 
cumstances to  which  he  alludes ;  and  at  length,  when,  still 
pursued  by  the  archbishop,  then  the  organ  of  Buckingham, 
as  usual,  this  king's  good  nature  too  easily  yielded ;  he  did 
not,  however,  without  closing  with  this  prediction :  "  Then 
take  him  to  you  ! — but,  on  my  soul,  you  will  repent  it !  "  The 
future  character  of  Cromwell  was  apparent  to  two  of  our 
great  politicians.  "  This  coarse  unpromising  man,"  said 
Lord  Falkland,  pointing  to  Cromwell,  "  will  be  the  first  per- 
son in  the  kingdom,  if  the  nation  comes  to  blows  !  "  And 
Archbishop  Williams  told  Charles  the  First  confidentially, 


168 


PREDICTION. 


"  There  was  that  in  Cromwell  which  foreboded  something 
dangerous,  and  wished  his  majesty  would  either  win  him 
over  to  him,  or  get  him  taken  off."  The  Marquis  of  Welles- 
ley's  incomparable  character  of  Bonaparte  predicted  his  fall 
when  highest  in  his  glory ;  that  great  statesman  then  poured 
forth  the  sublime  language  of  philosophical  prophecy.  "  His 
eagerness  of  power  is  so  inordinate ;  his  jealousy  of  independ- 
ence so  fierce  ;  his  keenness  of  appetite  so  feverish  in  all 
that  touches  his  ambition,  even  in  the  most  trifling  things, 
that  he  must  plunge  into  dreadful  difficulties.  He  is  one  of 
an  order  of  minds  that  by  nature  make  for  themselves  great 
reverses." 

Lord  Mansfield  was  once  asked,  after  the  commencement 
of  the  French  revolution,  when  it  would  end  ?  His  lordship 
replied,  "  It  is  an  event  without  precedent,  and  therefore, 
without  prognostic"  The  truth,  however,  is,  that  it  had  both. 
Our  own  history  had  furnished  a  precedent  in  the  times  of 
Charles  the  First.  And  the  prognostics  were  so  redundant, 
that  a  volume  might  be  collected  of  passages  from  various 
writers  who  had  predicted  it.  However  ingenious  might  be 
a  history  of  the  Reformation  before  it  occurred,  the  evidence 
could  not  be  more  authentic  and  positive  than  that  of  the 
great  moral  and  political  revolution  which  we  have  witnessed 
in  our  own  days. 

A  prediction,  which  Bishop  Butler  threw  out  in  a  sermon 
before  the  House  of  Lords,  in  1741,  does  honour  to  his  po- 
litical sagacity,  as  well  as  to  his  knowledge  of  human  na- 
ture ;  he  calculated  that  the  irreligious  spirit  would  produce, 
some  time  or  other,  political  disorders,  similar  to  those  which, 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  had  arisen  from  religious  fanati- 
cism. "  Is  there  no  danger,"  he  observed,  "  that  all  this  may 
raise  somewhat  like  that  levelling  spirit,  upon  atheistical  prin- 
ciples, which  in  the  last  age  prevailed  upon  enthusiastic  ones  ? 
Not  to  speak  of  the  possibility  that  different  sorts  of  people 
may  unite  in  it  upon  these  contrary  principles  !  "  All  this 
literally  has  been  accomplished  !    Leibnitz,  indeed,  foresaw 


PREDICTION. 


1G9 


the  results  of  those  selfish,  and  at  length  demoralizing,  opin- 
ions, which  began  to  prevail  through  Europe  in  his  day. 
These  disorganizing  principles,  conducted  by  a  political  sect, 
who  tried  "  to  be  worse  than  they  could  be,"  as  old  Mon- 
taigne expresses  it ;  a  sort  of  men  who  have  been  audaciously 
congratulated  as  "  having  a  taste  for  evil ;  "  exhibited  to  the 
astonished  world  the  dismal  catastrophe  the  philosopher  pre- 
dicted. I  shall  give  this  remarkable  passage.  "  I  find  that 
certain  opinions  approaching  those  of  Epicurus  and  Spinoze, 
are,  little  by  little,  insinuating  themselves  into  the  minds  of 
the  great  rulers  of  public  affairs,  who  serve  as  the  guides  of 
others,  and  on  whom  all  matters  depend ;  besides,  these  opin- 
ions are  also  sliding  into  fashionable  books,  and  thus  they  are 
preparing  all  things  to  that  general  revolution  which 
menaces  Europe  ;  destroying  those  generous  sentiments  of 
the  ancients,  Greek  and  Roman,  which  preferred  the  love  of 
country  and  public  good,  and  the  cares  of  posterity,  to  fortune 
and  even  to  life.  Our  public  spirits,*  as  the  English  call 
them,  excessively  diminish,  and  are  no  more  in  fashion,  and 
will  be  still  less  while  the  least  vicious  of  these  men  preserve 
only  one  principle,  which  they  call  honour;  a  principle 
which  only  keeps  them  from  not  doing  what  they  deem  a 
low  action,  while  they  openly  laugh  at  the  love  of  country — 
ridicule  those  who  are  zealous  for  public  ends — and  when  a 
well-intentioned  man  asks  what  will  become  of  their  pos- 
terity, they  reply,  '  Then,  as  now  ! '  But  it  may  happen  to 
these  persons  themselves  to  have  to  endure  those  evils  which 
they  believe  are  reserved  for  others.  If  this  epidemical  and 
intellectual  disorder  could  be  corrected,  whose  bad  effects  are 
already  visible,  those  evils  might  still  be  prevented  ;  but  if 
it  proceeds  in  its  growth,  Providence  will  correct  man  by  the 
very  revolution  which  must  spring  from  it.  Whatever  may 
happen  indeed,  all  must  turn  out  as  usual,  for  the  best  in 

*  Public  spirit,  and  public  spirits,  were  about  the  year  1700,  household 
words  with  us.  Leibnitz  was  struck  by  their  significance,  but  it  might 
now  puzzle  us  to  find  synonyms,  or  even  to  explain  the  very  terms  them- 
selves. 


170 


PREDICTION. 


general,  at  the  end  of  the  account,  although  this  cannot  hap- 
pen without  the  punishment  of  those  who  contribute  even  to 
general  good  by  their  evil  actions."  The  most  superficial 
reader  will  hardly  require  a  commentary  on  this  very  remark- 
able pa-sage  ;  he  must  instantly  perceive  how  Leibnitz,  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  foresaw  what  has  occurred  in  the 
eighteenth ;  and  the  prediction  has  been  verified  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  actors  in  the  late  revolution,  while  the  result, 
which  we  have  not  perhaps  yet  had,  according  to  Leibnitz's 
own  exhilarating  system  of  optimism,  is  an  eduction  of  good 
from  evil. 

A  great  genius,  who  was  oppressed  by  malignant  rivals  in 
his  own  times,  has  been  noticed  by  Madame  de  Stael,  as  hav- 
ing left  behind  him  an  actual  prophecy  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion :  this  was  Guibert,  who,  in  his  Commentary  on  Folard's 
Polybius,  published  in  1727,  declared,  that  ua  conspiracy  is 
actually  forming  in  Europe,  by  means  at  once  so  subtle  and 
efficacious,  that  I  am  sorry  not  to  have  come  into  the  world 
thirty  years  later  to  witness  its  result.  It  must  be  confessed 
that  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  wear  very  bad  spectacles. 
The  proofs  of  it  are  mathematical,  if  such  proofs  ever  were, 
of  a  conspiracy."  Guibert  unquestionably  foresaw  the  anti- 
monarchical  spirit  gathering  up  its  mighty  wings,  and  rising 
over  the  universe!  but  could  not  judge  of  the  nature  of 
the  impulse  which  he  predicted ;  prophesying  from  the 
ideas  in  his  luminous  intellect,  he  seems  to  have  been  far 
more  curious  about,  than  certain  of,  the  consequences.  Rous- 
seau even  circumstantially  predicted  the  convulsions  of  mod- 
ern Europe.  He  stood  on  the  crisis  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion, which  he  vividly  foresaw,  for  he  seriously  advised  the 
higher  classes  of  society  to  have  their  children  taught  some 
useful  trade  ;  a  notion  highly  ridiculed  on  the  first  appearance 
of  the  Emile  :  bat  at  its  hour  the  awful  truth  struck  !  He, 
too,  foresaw  the  horrors  of  that  revolution  ;  for  he  announced 
that  Emile  designed  to  emigrate,  because,  from  the  moral 
state  of  the  people,  a  virtuous  revolution  had  become  impos- 


PREDICTION. 


171 


Bible.*  The  eloquence  of  Burke  was  often  oracular  ;  and  a 
speech  of  Pitt,  in  1800,  painted  the  state  of  Europe  as  it  was 
only  realized  fifteen  years  afterwards. 

But  many  remarkable  predictions  have  turned  out  to  be 
false.  Whenever  the  facts  on  which  the  prediction  is  raised 
are  altered  in  their  situation,  what  was  relatively  true  ceases 
to  operate  as  a  general  principle.  For  instance,  to  that  strik- 
ing anticipation  which  Rousseau  formed  of  the  French  revo- 
lution, he  added,  by  way  of  note,  as  remarkable  a  prediction 
on  monarchy.  Je  t! ens  pour  impossible  que  les  grandes  mo- 
narchies de  V Europe  aient  encore  long  terns  a  durer  ;  toutes 
ont  brille  et  tout  etat  qui  brille  est  sur  son  declin.  The  pre- 
dominant anti-monarchical  spirit  among  our  rising  generation 
seems  to  hasten  on  the  accomplishment  of  the  prophecy ;  but 
if  an  important  alteration  has  occurred  in  the  nature  of  things, 
we  may  question  the  result.  If  by  looking  into  the  past, 
Rousseau  found  facts  which  sufficiently  proved  that  nations 
in  the  height  of  their  splendour  and  corruption  had  closed 
their  career  by  falling  an  easy  conquest  to  barbarous  inva- 
ders, who  annihilated  the  most  polished  people  at  a  single 
blow  ;  we  now  find  that  no  such  power  any  longer  exists  in 
the  great  family  of  Europe  :  the  state  of  the  question  is  there- 
fore changed.  It  is  now  how  corrupt  nations  will  act  against 
corrupt  nations  equally  enlightened  ?  But  if  the  citizen  of 
Geneva  drew  his  prediction  of  the  extinction  of  monarchy  in 
Europe  from  that  predilection  for  democracy  which  assumes 
that  a  republic  must  necessarily  produce  more  happiness  to 
the  people  than  a  monarchy,  then  we  say  that  the  fatal  experi- 

*  This  extraordinary  passage  is  at  the  close  of  the  third  book  of  Emile, 
to  which  I  must  refer  the  reader.  It  is  curious,  however,  to  observe,  that 
in  1760  Rousseau  poured  forth  the  following  awful  predictions,  which  were 
considered  quite  absurd: — "  Vous  vous  fiez  a  l'ordre  actuel  de  la  society, 
sans  songer  que  cet  ordre  est  sujet  a  des  revolutions  inevitables — le  grand 
devient  petit,  le  riche  devieut  pauvre,  le  monarque  devient  sujet— nous  ap- 
proihons  tet  tt  de  crise  et  du  sieile  des  revolutions.  Que  fera  done  dans  la 
basses^e  ce  satrape  que  vous  n'aurez  eleve"  que  pour  la  grandeur?  Que 
fera  dans  la  pauvrete\  ce  publicain  qui  ne  scait  vivre  que  d'or?  Que  fera 
d^pourvu  de  tout,  ce  fastueux  imbecille  qui  ne  sait  point  user  de  lui- 
aaeme?  "  &c.  &c. 


172 


PREDICTION. 


ment  was  again  repeated  since  the  prediction,  and  the  fact 
proved  not  true  !  The  excess  of  democracy  inevitably  termin- 
ates in  a  monarchical  state ;  and  were  all  the  monarchies  in 
Eui-ope  at  present  republics,  a  philosopher  might  safely  pre- 
dict the  restoration  of  monarchy  ! 

If  a  prediction  be  raised  on  facts  which  our  own  prejudices 
induce  us  to  infer  will  exist,  it  must  be  chimerical.  We  have 
an  Universal  Chronicle  of  the  Monk  Carion,  printed  in  1532, 
in  which  he  announces  that  the  world  was  about  ending,  as 
well  as  his  chronicle  of  it ;  that  the  Turkish  empire  would 
not  last  many  years  ;  that  after  the  death  of  Charles  the 
Fifth  the  empire  of  Germany  would  be  torn  to  pieces  by  the 
Germans  themselves.  This  monk  will  no  longer  pass  for  a 
prophet ;  he  belongs  to  that  class  of  historians  who  write  to 
humour  their  own  prejudices,  like  a  certain  lady-prophetess, 
who  in  1811,  predicted  that  grass  was  to  grow  in  Cheapside 
about  this  time !  The  monk  Carion,  like  others  of  greater 
name,  had  miscalculated  the  weeks  of  Daniel,  and  wished 
more  ill  to  the  Mahometans  than  suit  the  Christian  cabinets 
of  Europe  to  inflict  on  them  ;  and,  lastly,  the  monastic  histo- 
rian had  no  notion  that  it  would  please  Providence  to  prosper 
the  heresy  of  Luther !  Sir  James  Mackintosh  once  observed, 
"  I  am  sensible,  that  in  the  field  of  political  prediction,  veteran 
sagacity  has  often  been  deceived."  Sir  James  alluded  to  the 
memorable  example  of  Harrington,  who  published  a  demon- 
stration of  the  impossibility  of  reestablishing  monarchy  in 
England,  six  months  before  the  restoration  of  Charles  the 
Second  !  But  the  author  of  the  Oceana  was  a  political  fana- 
tic, who  ventured  to  predict  an  event,  not  by  other  similar 
events,  but  by  a  theoretical  principle  which  he  had  formed, 
that  "  the  balance  of  power  depends  on  that  of  property." 
Harrington,-  in  his  contracted  view  of  human  nature,  had 
dropped  out  of  his  calculation  all  the  stirring  passions  of 
ambition  and  party,  and  the  vacillations  of  the  multitude.  A 
similar  error  of  a  great  genius  occurs  in  De  Foe.  "  Child," 
says  Mr.  George  Chalmers,  "  foreseeing  from  experience  that 


PREDICTION. 


173 


men's  conduct  must  finally  be  decided  by  their  principles, 
foretold  the  colonial  revolt.  De  Foe,  allowing  his  preju- 
dices to  obscure  his  sagacity,  reprobated  that  suggestion,  be- 
cause he  deemed  interest  a  more  strenuous  prompter  than 
enthusiasm."  The  predictions  of  Harrington  and  De  Foe 
are  precisely  such  as  we  might  expect  from  a  petty  calculator 
— a  political  economist,  who  can  see  nothing  further  than 
immediate  results ;  but  the  true  philosophical  predictor  was 
Child,  who  had  read  the  past.  It  is  probable  that  the  Amer- 
ican emancipation  from  the  mother-country  of  England  was 
foreseen,  twenty  or  thirty  years  before  it  occurred,  though 
not  perhaps  by  the  administration.  Lord  Orford,  writing  in 
1754  under  the  ministry  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  blames 
"  The  instructions  to  the  governor  of  New  York,  which 
seemed  better  calculated  for  the  latitude  of  Mexico,  and  for  a 
Spanish  tribunal,  than  for  a  free  British  settlement,  and  in 
such  opulence  and  such  haughtiness,  that  suspicions  had  long 
been  conceived  of  their  meditating  to  throw  off  the  dependence 
on  their  mother -country.'"  If  this  was  written  at  the  time,  as 
the  author  asserts,  it  is  a  very  remarkable  passage,  observes 
the  noble  editor  of  his  memoirs.  The  prognostics  or  presages 
of  this  revolution,  it  may  now  be  difficult  to  recover ;  but  it  is 
evident  that  Child,  before  the  time  when  Lord  Orford  wrote 
this  passage,  predicted  the  separation  on  true  and  philosoph- 
ical principles. 

Even  when  the  event  does  not  always  justify  the  predic 
tion,  the  predictor  may  not  have  been  the  less  correct  in  his 
principles  of  divination.  The  catastrophe  of  human  life,  and 
the  turn  of  great  events,  often  prove  accidental.  Marshal 
Biron,  whom  we  have  noticed,  might  have  ascended  the 
throne  instead  of  the  scaffold ;  Cromwell  and  De  Retz  might 
have  become  only  the  favourite  general,  or  the  minister  of 
their  sovereigns.  Fortuitous  events  are  not  comprehended 
in  the  reach  of  human  prescience ;  such  must  be  consigned 
to  those  vulgar  superstitions  which  presume  to  discover  the 
'ssue  of  human  events,  without  pretending  to  any  human 


174 


PREDICTION. 


knowledge.  There  is  nothing  supernatural  in  the  prescience 
of  the  philosopher. 

Sometimes  predictions  have  been  condemned  as  false  ones, 
which,  when  scrutinized,  we  can  scarcely  deem  to  have 
failed:  they  may  have  been  accomplished,  and  they  may 
again  revolve  on  us.  In  1749,  Dr.  Hartley  published  his 
u  Observations  on  Man  ; "  and  predicted  the  fall  of  the  exist- 
ing governments  and  hierarchies  in  two  simple  propositions ; 
among  others — 

Prop.  81.  It  is  probable  that  all  the  civil  governments 
will  be  overturned. 

Prop.  82.  It  is  probable  that  the  present  forms  of  church- 
government  will  be  dissolved. 

Many  were  alarmed  at  these  predicted  falls  of  church  and 
state.  Lady  Charlotte  Went  worth  asked  Hartley  when 
these  terrible  things  would  happen.  The  answer  of  the  pre- 
dictor was  not  less  awful :  "  I  am  an  old  man,  and  shall  not 
live  to  see  them ;  but  you  are  a  young  woman,  and  probably 
will  see  them."  In  the  subsequent  revolutions  of  America 
and  of  France,  and  perhaps  now  of  Spain,  we  can  hardly  deny 
that  these  predictions  had  failed.  A  fortuitous  event  has 
once  more  thrown  back  Europe  into  its  old  corners :  but  we 
still  revolve  in  a  circle,  and  what  is  now  dark  and  remote 
may  again  come  round,  when  time  has  performed  its  great 
cycle.  There  was  a  prophetical  passage  in  Hooker's  Eccle- 
siastical Polity,  regarding  the  church,  which  long  occupied 
the  speculations  of  its  expounders.  Hooker  indeed  seemed 
to  have  done  what  no  predictor  of  events  should  do  ;  he 
fixed  on  the  period  of  its  accomplishment.  In  1597,  he  de- 
clared that  it  would  "  peradventure  fall  out  to  be  threescore 
and  ten  years,  or  if  strength  do  awe,  into  fourscore."  Those 
who  had  outlived  the  revolution  in  1641,  when  the  long  par- 
liament pulled  down  the  ecclesiastical  establishment,  and  sold 
the  church-lands, — a  circumstance  which  Hooker  had  con- 
templated— and  were  afterwards  returned  to  their  places  on 
the  Restoration,  imagined  that  the  prediction  had  not  yet 


PREDICTION. 


175 


been  completed,  and  were  looking  with  great  anxiety  towards 
the  year  1G77,  for  the  close  of  this  extraordinary  prediction! 
When  Bishop  Barlow,  in  1G75,  was  consulted  on  it,  he  en- 
deavoured to  dissipate  the  panic,  by  referring  to  an  old 
historian,  who  had  reproached  our  nation  for  their  proneness 
to  prophecies !  The  prediction  of  the  venerable  Hooker  in 
truth  had  been  fully  accomplished,  and  the  event  had  oc- 
curred without  Bishop  Barlow  having  recurred  to  it;  so 
easy  it  seems  to  forget  what  we  dislike  to  remember !  The 
period  of  time  was  too  literally  taken ;  and  seems  to  have 
been  only  the  figurative  expression  of  man's  age  in  scriptural 
language,  which  Hooker  had  employed ;  but  no  one  will 
now  deny  that  this  prescient  sage  had  profoundly  foreseen 
the  results  of  that  rising  party,  whose  designs  on  church  and 
state  were  clearly  depicted  in  his  own  luminous  view. 

The  philosophical  predictor,  in  foretelling  a  crisis,  from 
the  appearance  of  things,  will  not  rashly  assign  the  period 
of  time ;  for  the  crisis  which  he  anticipates  is  calculated  on 
by  that  inevitable  march  of  events  which  generate  each  other 
in  human  affairs ;  but  the  period  is  always  dubious,  being 
either  retarded  or  accelerated  by  circumstances  of  a  nature 
incapable  of  entering  into  this  moral  arithmetic.  It  is  prob- 
able, that  a  revolution,  similar  to  that  of  France,  would  have 
occurred  in  this  country,  had  it  not  been  counteracted  by  the 
genius  of  Pitt.  In  1618,  it  was  easy  to  foretell  by  the  polit- 
ical prognostics,  that  a  mighty  war  throughout  Europe  must 
necessarily  occur.  At  that  moment,  observes  Bayle,  the 
house  of  Austria  aimed  at  a  universal  monarchy ;  the  conse- 
quent domineering  spirit  of  the  ministers  of  the  emperor  and 
the  king  of  Spain,  combined  with  their  determination  to  ex- 
terminate the  new  religion,  excited  a  reaction  to  this  imperial 
despotism ;  public  opinion  had  been  suppressed,  till  every 
people  grew  impatient ;  while  their  sovereigns,  influenced  by 
national  feeling,  were  combining  against  Austria.  But 
Austria  was  a  vast  military  power,  and  her  generals  were 
the  first  of  their  class.    The  efforts  of  Europe  would  then  be 


176 


PREDICTION. 


often  repulsed !  This  state  of  affairs  prognosticated  a  long 
war ! — and  when  at  length  it  broke  out  it  lasted  thirty  years ! 
The  approach  and  the  duration  of  the  war  might  have  been 
predicted  ;  but  the  period  of  its  termination  could  not  have 
been  foreseen. 

There  is,  however,  a  spirit  of  political  vaticination  which 
presumes  to  pass  beyond  the  boundaries  of  human  prescience ; 
it  has  been  often  ascribed  to  the  highest  source  of  inspiration 
by  enthusiasts ;  but  since  "the  language  of  prophecy"  has 
ceased,  such  pretensions  are  not  less  impious  than  they  are 
unphilosophical.  Knox  the  reformer  possessed  an  extraor- 
dinary portion  of  this  awful  prophetic  confidence  :  he  appears 
to  have  predicted  several  remarkable  events,  and  the  fates  of 
some  persons.  We  are  told,  that,  condemned  to  a  galley  at 
Rochelle,  he  predicted  that  "  within  two  or  three  years  he 
should  preach  the  gospel  at  Saint  Giles's  in  Edinburgh ; "  an 
improbable  event,  which  happened.  Of  Mary  and  Darnley,  he 
pronounced,  that  "  as  the  king,  for  the  queen's  pleasure,  had 
gone  to  mass,  the  Lord,  in  his  justice,  would  make  her  the 
instrument  of  his  overthrow."  Other  striking  predictions  of 
the  deaths  of  Thomas  Maitland,  and  of  Kirkaldy  of  Grange, 
and  the  warning  he  solemnly  gave  to  the  Regent  Murray  not 
to  go  to  Linlithgow,  where  he  was  assassinated,  occasioned  a 
barbarous  people  to  imagine  that  the  prophet  Knox  had  re- 
ceived an  immediate  communication  from  Heaven.  A 
Spanish  friar  and  almanac-maker  predicted,  in  clear  and 
precise  words,  the  death  of  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France; 
and  Pieresc,  though  he  had  no  faith  in  the  vain  science  of 
astrology,  yet,  alarmed  at  whatever  menaced  the  life  of  a  be- 
loved monarch,  consulted,  with  some  of  the  king's  friends, 
and  had  the  Spanish  almanac  laid  before  his  majesty.  That 
high-spirited  monarch  thanked  them  for  their  solicitude,  but 
utterly  slighted  the  prediction:  the  event  occurred,  and  in 
the  following  year  the  Spanish  friar  spread  his  own  fame  in 
a  new  almanac.  I  have  been  occasionally  struck  at  the 
Jeremiads  of  honest  George  Withers,  the  vaticinating  poet 


PREDICTION. 


177 


of  our  civil  wars  :  some  of  his  works  afford  many  solemn 
predictions.  We  may  account  for  many  predictions  of  this 
class,  without  the  intervention  of  any  supernatural  agency. 
Among  the  busy  spirits  of  a  revolutionary  age,  the  heads  of 
a  party,  such  as  Knox,  have  frequently  secret  communica- 
tions with  spies  or  with  friends.  In  a  constant  source  of 
concealed  information,  a  shrewd,  confident,  and  enthusiastic 
temper  will  find  ample  matter  for  mysterious  prescience. 
Knox  exercised  that  deep  sagacity  which  took  in  the  most 
enlarged  views  of  the  future,  as  appears  by  his  Machiavelian 
foresight  on  the  barbarous  destruction  of  the  monasteries  and 
the  cathedrals — "  The  best  way  to  keep  the  rooks  from  re- 
turning, is  to  pull  down  their  nests"  In  the  case  of  the 
prediction  of  the  death  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  by  the  Spanish 
friar,  it  resulted  either  from  his  being  acquainted  with  the 
plot,  or  from  his  being  made  an  instrument  for  their  purpose 
by  those  who  were.  It  appears  that  rumours  of  Henry's 
assassination  were  rife  in  Spain  and  Italy  before  the  event 
occurred.  Such  vaccinators  as  George  Withers  will  always 
rise  in  those  disturbed  times  which  his  own  prosaic  metre  has 
forcibly  depicted : — 

"  It  may  be  on  that  darkness,  which  they  find 
Within  their  hearts,  a  sudden  light  hath  shin'd, 
Making  reflections  of  some  things  to  come, 
Which  leave  within  them  musings  troublesome 
To  their  weak  spirits;  or  too  intricate 
For  them  to  put  in  order,  and  relate. 
They  act  as  men  in  ecstasies  have  done — 
Striving  their  cloudy  visions  to  declare — 
And  I,  perhaps,  among  these  may  be  one 
That  was  let  loose  for  service  to  be  done : 
I  blunder  out  what  worldly-prudent  men 
Count  madnesse." — P.  7.* 

Separating  human  prediction  from  inspired  prophecy,  we 
only  ascribe  to  the  faculties  of  man  that  acquired  prescience 
which  we  have  demonstrated  that  some  great  minds  have 

*  "  A  Dark  Lantherne,  offering  a  dim  Discovery,  intermixed  with  Re- 
membrances, Predictions,  &c.  1652." 
vol.  iv.  12 


178 


PREDICTION. 


unquestionably  exercised.  We  have  discovered  its  principles 
in  the  necessary  dependence  of  effects  on  general  causes,  and 
we  have  shown  that,  impelled  by  the  same  motives,  and  cir- 
cumscribed by  the  same  passions,  all  human  affairs  revolve 
in  a  circle  ;  and  we  have  opened  the  true  source  of  this  yet 
imperfect  science  of  moral  and  political  prediction,  in  an  inti- 
mate but  a  discriminative  knowledge  of  the  past. 

Authority  is  sacred,  when  experience  affords  parallels  and 
analogies.  If  much  which  may  overwhelm  when  it  shall 
happen  can  be  foreseen,  the  prescient  statesman  and  moralist 
may  provide  defensive  measures  to  break  the  waters,  whose 
streams  they  cannot  always  direct ;  and  venerable  Hooker 
has  profoundly  observed,  that  "  the  best  things  have  been 
overthrown,  not  so  much  by  puissance  and  might  of  adversa- 
ries, as  through  defect  of  council  in  those  that  should  have 
upheld  and  defended  the  same."  * 

The  philosophy  of  history  blends  the  past  with  the  present, 
and  combines  the  present  with  the  future  :  each  is  but  a  por- 
tion of  the  other  !  The  actual  state  of  a  thing  is  necessarily 
determined  by  its  antecedent,  and  thus  progressively  through 
the  chain  of  human  existence  ;  while  "  the  present  is  always 
full  of  the  future,"  as  Leibnitz  has  happily  expressed  the 
idea. 

A  new  and  beautiful  light  is  thus  thrown  over  the  annals 
of  mankind,  by  the  analogies  and  the  parallels  of  different 
ages  in  succession.  How  the  seventeenth  century  has  influ- 
enced the  eighteenth  ;  and  the  results  of  the  nineteenth  as 
they  shall  appear  in  the  twentieth,  might  open  a  source  of 

*  Hooker  wrote  this  about  1560,  and  he  wrote  before  the  Sieele  des  Revo- 
lutions had  begun,  even  among  ourselves !  He  penetrated  into  this  impor- 
tant principle  merely  by  the  force  of  his  own  mediation.  At  this  moment, 
after  more  practical  experience  in  political  revolutions,  a  very  intelligent 
French  writer,  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  M.  de  Villele,"  says,  "  Experience 
proclaims  a  great  truth — namely,  that  revolutions  themselves  cannot  suc- 
ceed, except  when  they  are  favoured  by  a  portion  of  the  Government." 
He  illustrates  the  axiom  by  the  different  revolutions  which  have  occurred 
in  his  nation  within  these  thirty  years.  It  is  the  same  truth,  traced  to  its 
source  by  another  road. 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


170 


predictions,  to  which,  however  difficult  it  might  be  to  affix 
their  dates,  there  would  be  none  in  exploring  into  causes,  and 
tracing  their  inevitable  effects. 

The  multitude  live  only  among  the  shadows  of  things  in 
the  appearances  of  the  present  ;  the  learned,  busied  with 
the  past,  can  only  trace  whence,  and  how,  all  comes ;  but  he 
who  is  one  of  the  people,  and  one  of  the  learned,  the  true 
philosopher,  views  the  natural  tendency  and  terminations 
which  are  preparing  for  the  future  ! 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 

Modern  philosophy,  theoretical  or  experimental,  only 
amuses  while  the  action  of  discovery  is  suspended  or  ad- 
vances ;  the  interest  ceases  with  the  inquirer  when  the  catas- 
trophe is  ascertained,  as  in  the  romance  whose  denouement 
turns  on  a  mysterious  incident,  which,  once  unfolded,  all 
future  agitation  ceases.  But  in  the  true  infancy  of  science, 
philosophers  were  as  imaginative  a  race  as  poets  :  marvels 
and  portents,  undemonstrable  and  undefinable,  with  occult 
fancies,  perpetually  beginning  and  never  ending,  were  de- 
lightful as  the  shifting  cantos  of  Ariosto.  Then  science 
entranced  the  eye  by  its  thaumaturgy ;  when  they  looked 
through  an  optic  tube,  they  believed  they  were  looking  into 
futurity;  or,  starting  at  some  shadow  darkening  the  glassy 
globe,  beheld  the  absent  person  ;  while  the  mechanical  inven- 
tions of  art  were  toys  and  tricks,  with  sometimes  an  autom- 
aton, which  frightened  them  with  life. 

The  earlier  votaries  of  modern  philosophy  only  witnessed, 
as  Gaffarel  calls  his  collection,  "  Unheard-of  Curiosities." 
This  state  of  the  marvellous,  of  which  we  are  now  for  ever 
deprived,  prevailed  among  the  philosophers  and  the  virtuosi 
in  Europe,  and  with  ourselves,  long  after  the  establishment 
»f  the  Royal  Society.    Philosophy  then  depended  mainly  on 


180         DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


authority — a  single  one  however  was  sufficient :  so  that  when 
this  had  been  repeated  by  fifty  others,  they  had  the  authority 
of  fifty  honest  men — whoever  the  first  man  might  have  been  ! 
They  were  then  a  blissful  race  of  children,  rambling  here  and 
there  in  a  golden  age  of  innocence  and  ignorance,  where  at 
every  step  each  gifted  discoverer  whispered  to  the  few,  some 
half-concealed  secret  of  nature,  or  played  with  some  toy  of 
art ;  some  invention  which  with  great  difficulty  performed 
what,  without  it,  might  have  been  done  with  great  ease.  The 
cabinets  of  the  lovers  of  mechanical  arts  formed  enchanted 
apartments,  where  the  admirers*  feared  to  stir  or  look  about 
them ;  while  the  philosophers  themselves  half  imagined  they 
were  the  very  thaumaturgi,  for  which  the  world  gave  the^n 
too  much  credit,  at  least  for  their  quiet !  Would  we  run 
after  the  shadows  in  this  gleaming  land  of  moonshine,  or 
sport  with  these  children  in  the  fresh  morning  of  science,  ere 
Aurora  had  scarcely  peeped  on  the  hills,  we  must  enter  into 
their  feelings,  view  with  their  eyes,  and  believe  all  they  con- 
fide to  us ;  and  out  of  these  bundles  of  dreams  sometimes 
pick  out  one  or  two  for  our  own  dreaming.  They  are  the 
fairy  tales  and  the  Arabian  Nights'  entertainments  of  science. 
But  if  the  reader  is  stubbornly  mathematical  and  logical,  he 
will  only  be  holding  up  a  great  torch  against  the  muslin  cur- 
tain, upon  which  the  fantastic  shadows  playing  upon  it  must 
vanish  at  the  instant.  It  is  an  amusement  which  can  only 
take  place  by  carefully  keeping  himself  in  the  dark. 

What  a  subject,  were  I  to  enter  on  it,  would  be  the  narra- 
tives of  magical  writers  !  These  precious  volumes  have  been 
so  constantly  wasted  by  the  profane,  that  now  a  book  of  real 
magic  requires  some  to  find  it,  as  well  as  a  great  magician  to 
use  it.  Albertus  Magnus,  or  Albert  the  Great,  as  he  is 
erroneously  styled — for  this  sage  only  derived  this  enviable 
epithet  from  his  surname  De  Groot,  as  did  Hugo  Grotius  — 
this  sage,  in  his  "  Admirable  Secrets,"  delivers  his  opinion 
that  these  books  of  magic  should  be  most  preciously  pre- 
served ;  for,  he  prophetically  added,  the  time  is  arriving 


DKEAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  181 

when  they  would  be  understood  !  It  seems  they  were  not 
intelligible  in  the  thirteenth  century ;  but  if  Albertus  has  not 
miscalculated,  in  the  present  day  they  may  be  !  Magical 
terms  with  talismanic  figures  may  yet  conceal  many  a  secret; 
gunpowder  came  down  to  us  in  a  sort  of  anagram,  and  the 
kaleidoscope,  with  all  its  interminable  multiplications  of  forms, 
lay  at  hand  for  two  centuries  in  Baptista  Porta's  "  Natural 
Magic."  The  abbot  Trithemius,  in  a  confidential  letter,  hap- 
pened to  call  himself  a  magician,  perhaps  at  the  moment  he 
thought  himself  one,  and  sent  three  or  four  leaves  stuffed 
with  the  names  of  devils  and  with  their  evocations.  At  the 
death  of  his  friend  these  leaves  fell  into  the  unworthy  hands 
of  the  prior,  who  was  so  frightened  on  the  first  glance  at  the 
diabolical  nomenclature,  that  he  raised  the  country  against 
the  abbot,  and  Trithemius  was  nearly  a  lost  man  !  Yet,  after 
all,  this  evocation  of  devils  has  reached  us  in  his  "  Stegano- 
graphia,"  and  proves  to  be  only  one  of  this  ingenious  abbot's 
polygraphic  attempts  at  secret  writing  ;  for  he  had  flattered 
himself  that  he  had  invented  a  mode  of  concealing  his  thoughts 
from  all  the  world,  while  he  communicated  them  to  a  friend. 
Roger  Bacon  promised  to  raise  thunder  and  lightning,  and 
disperse  clouds  by  dissolving  them  into  rain.  The  first 
magical  process  has  been  obtained  by  Franklin  ;  and  the 
other,  of  far  more  use  to  our  agriculturists,  may  perchance  be 
found  lurking  in  some  corner  which  has  been  overlooked  in 
the  "  Opus  majus  "  of  our  "  Doctor  mirabilis."  Do  we  laugh 
at  their  magical  works  of  art  ?  Are  we  ourselves  such  indif- 
ferent artists  ?  Cornelius  Agrippa,  before  he  wrote  his 
"  Vanity  of  the  Arts  and  Sciences,"  intended  to  reduce  into 
a  system  and  method  the  secret  of  communicating  with  spirits 
and  demons.  On  good  authority,  that  of  Porphyrius,  Psellus, 
Plotinus,  Jamblichus — and  on  better,  were  it  necessary  to 
allege  it — he  was  well  assured  that  the  upper  regions  of  the 
air  swarmed  with  what  the  Greeks  called  dcemones,  just  as 
our  lower  atmosphere  is  full  of  birds,  our  waters  of  fish,  and 
our  earth  of  insects.    Yet  this  occult  philosopher,  who  knew 


182        DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


perfectly  eight  languages,  and  married  two  wives,  with  whom 
he  had  never  exchanged  a  harsh  word  in  any  of  them,  was 
everywhere  avoided  as  having  by  his  side,  for  his  companion, 
a  personage  no  less  than  a  demon  !  This  was  a  great  black 
dog  ;  whom  he  suffered  to  stretch  himself  out  among  his 
magical  manuscripts,  or  Re  on  his  bed,  often  kissing  and  pat- 
ting him,  and  feeding  him  on  choice  morsels.  Yet  for  this, 
would  Paulus  Jovius  and  all  the  world  have  had  him  put  to 
the  ordeal  of  fire  and  fagot  !  The  truth  was  afterwards 
boldly  asserted  by  Wierus,  his  learned  domestic,  who  be- 
lieved that  his  master's  dog  was  really  nothing  more  than 
what  he  appeared  !  "  I  believe,"  says  he,  "  that  he  was  a 
real  natural  dog ;  he  was  indeed  black,  but  of  a  moderate 
size,  and  I  have  often  led  him  by  a  string,  and  called  him  by 
the  French  name  Agrippa  had  given  him,  Monsieur !  and  he 
had  a  female  who  was  called  Mademoiselle  !  I  wonder  how 
authors  of  such  great  character  should  write  so  absurdly  on 
his  vanishing  at  his  death,  noboby  knows  how  ! "  But  as  it 
is  probable  that  Monsieur  and  Mademoiselle  must  have  gen- 
erated some  puppy  demons,  Wierus  ought  to  have  been  more 
circumstantial. 

Albertus  Magnus,  for  thirty  years,  had  never  ceased  work- 
ing at  a  man  of  brass,  and  had  cast  together  the  qualities  of 
his  materials  under  certain  constellations,  which  threw  such 
a  spirit  into  his  man  of  brass,  that  it  was  reported  his  growth 
was  visible ;  his  feet,  legs,  thighs,  shoulders,  neck,  and  head, 
expanded,  and  made  the  city  of  Cologne  uneasy  at  possessing 
one  citizen  too  mighty  for  them  all.  This  man  of  brass, 
when  he  reached  his  maturity,  was  so  loquacious,  that 
Albert's  master,  the  great  scholastic  Thomas  Aquinas,  one 
day,  tired  of  his  babble,  and  declaring  it  was  a  devil,  o~ 
devilish,  with  his  staff  knocked  the  head  off ;  and,  what  was 
extraordinary,  this  brazen  man,  like  any  human  being  thus 
effectually  silenced,  "  word  never  spake  more."  This  inci- 
dent is  equally  historical  and  authentic ;  though  whether 
heads  of  brass  can  speak,  and  even  prophecy,  was  indeed  a 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  183 


subject  of  profound  inquiry,  even  at  a  later  period.  Naude, 
who  never  questioned  their  vocal  powers,  and  yet  was  puzzled 
concerning  the  nature  of  this  new  species  of  animal,  has  no 
doubt  most  judiciously  stated  the  question.  Whether  these 
speaking  brazen  heads  had  a  sensitive  and  reasoning  nature, 
or  whether  demons  spoke  in  them  ?  But  brass  has  not  the 
faculty  of  providing  its  own  nourishment,  as  we  see  in  plants, 
and  therefore  they  were  not  sensitive  ;  and  as  for  the  act  of 
reasoning,  these  brazen  heads  presumed  to  know  nothing  but 
the  future :  with  the  past  and  the  present  they  seemed  totally 
unacquainted,  so  that  their  memory  and  their  observation 
were  very  limited ;  and  as  for  the  future,  that  is  always 
doubtful  and  obscure — even  to  heads  of  brass  !  This  learned 
man  then  infers,  that  "  These  brazen  heads  could  have  no 
reasoning  faculties,  for  nothing  altered  their  nature ;  they 
said  what  they  had  to  say,  which  no  one  could  contradict ; 
and  having  said  their  say,  you  might  have  broken  the  head 
for  any  thing  more  that  you  could  have  got  out  of  it.  Had 
they  had  any  life  in  them,  would  they  not  have  moved,  as 
well  as  spoken  ?  Life  itself  is  but  motion,  but  they  had  no 
lungs,  no  spleen ;  and,  in  fact,  though  they  spoke,  they  had 
no  tongue.  Was  a  devil  in  them  ?  I  think  not.  Yet  why 
should  men  have  taken  all  this  trouble  to  make,  not  a  man, 
but  a  trumpet  ?  " 

Our  profound  philosopher  was  right  not  to  agitate  the 
question  whether  these  brazen  heads  had  ever  spoken.  Why 
should  not  a  man  of  brass  speak,  since  a  doll  can  whisper,  a 
statue  play  chess,  and  brass  ducks  have  performed  the  whole 
process  of  digestion  ?  Another  magical  invention  has  been 
ridiculed  with  equal  reason.  A  magician  was  annoyed,  as 
philosophers  still  are,  by  passengers  in  the  street ;  and  he, 
particularly  so,  by  having  horses  led  to  drink  under  his 
window.  He  made  a  magical  horse  of  wood,  according  to 
one  of  the  books  of  Hermes,  which  perfectly  answered  its 
purpose,  by  frightening  away  the  horses,  or  rather  the 
grooms !  the  wooden  horse,  no  doubt,  gave  some  palpable 


184         DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


kick.  The  same  magical  story  might  have  been  told  of  Dr. 
Franklin,  who  finding  that  under  his  window  the  passengers 
had  discovered  a  spot  which  they  made  too  convenient  for 
themselves,  he  charged  it  with  his  newly-discovered  electrical 
fire.  After  a  few  remarkable  incidents  had  occurred,  which 
at  a  former  period  would  have  lodged  the  great  discoverer 
of  electricity  in  the  Inquisition,  the  modern  magician  suc- 
ceeded just  as  well  as  the  ancient,  who  had  the  advantage 
of  conning  over  the  books  of  Hermes.  Instead  of  ridiculing 
these  works  of  magic,  let  us  rather  become  magicians  our- 
selves ! 

The  works  of  the  ancient  alchemists  have  afforded  num- 
berless discoveries  to  modern  chemists :  nor  is  even  their 
grand  operation  despaired  of.  If  they  have  of  late  not  been 
so  renowned,  this  has  arisen  from  a  want  of  what  Ashmole 
calls  "  apertness ; "  a  qualification  early  inculcated  among 
these  illuminated  sages.  We  find  authentic  accounts  of  some 
who  have  lived  three  centuries,  with  tolerable  complexions, 
possessed  of  nothing  but  a  crucible  and  a  bellows !  but  they 
were  so  unnecessarily  mysterious,  that  whenever  such  a 
person  was  discovered,  he  was  sure  in  an  instant  to  disappear, 
and  was  never  afterwards  heard  of. 

In  the  "  Liber  Patris  Sapientiae  "  this  selfish  cautiousness 
is  all  along  impressed  on  the  student,  for  the  accomplishment 
of  the  great  mystery.  In  the  commentary  on  this  precious 
work  of  the  alchemist  Norton,  who  counsels, 

"  Be  thou  in  a  place  secret,  by  thyself  alone, 
That  no  man  see  or  hear  what  thou  shalt  say  or  done. 
Trust  not  thy  friend  too  much  wheresoe'er  thou  go, 
For  he  thou  trustest  best,  sometyme  may  be  thy  foe." 

Ashmole  observes,  that  "  Norton  gives  exceeding  good  ad- 
vice to  the  student  in  this  science  where  he  bids  him  be 
secret  in  the  carrying  on  of  his  studies  and  operations,  and 
not  to  let  any  one  know  of  his  undertakings  but  his  good 
angel  and  himself: "  and  such  a  close  and  retired  breast  had 
Norton's  master,  who, 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


185 


"  When  men  disputed  of  colours  of  the  rose, 
He  would  not  speak,  but  kept  himself  full  close !  " 

We  regret,  that  by  each  leaving  all  his  knowledge  to  "  his 
good  angel  and  himself,"  it  has  happened  that  "  the  good 
angels  "  have  kept  it  all  to  themselves  ! 

It  cannot,  however,  be  denied,  that  if  they  could  not 
always  extract  gold  out  of  lead,  they  sometimes  succeeded  in 
washing  away  the  pimples  on  ladies'  faces,  notwithstanding 
that  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  poisoned  his  most  beautiful  lady, 
because,  as  Sancho  would  have  said,  he  was  one  of  those 
who  would  "  have  his  bread  whiter  than  the  finest  wheaten." 
Van  Helmont,  who  could  not  succeed  in  discovering  the  true 
elixir  of  life,  however  hit  on  the  spirit  of  hartshorn,  which 
for  a  good  while  he  considered  was  the  wonderful  elixir 
itself,  restoring  to  life  persons  who  seemed  to  have  lost  it. 
And  though  this  delightful  enthusiast  could  not  raise  a  ghost, 
yet  he  thought  he  had;  for  he  raised  something  aerial  from 
spa-water,  which  mistaking  for  a  ghost,  he  gave  it  that  very 
name  ;  a  name  which  we  still  retain  in  gas,  from  the  German, 
geist,  or  ghost !  Paracelsus  carried  the  tiny  spirits  about  him 
in  the  hilt  of  his  great  sword  !  Having  first  discovered  the 
qualities  of  laudanum,  this  illustrious  quack  made  use  of  it 
as  an  universal  remedy,  and  distributed  it  in  the  form  of  pills, 
which  he  carried  in  the  basket-hilt  of  his  sword ;  the  opera- 
tions he  performed  were  as  rapid  as  they  seemed  magical. 
Doubtless  we  have  lost  some  inconceivable  secrets  by  some 
unexpected  occurrences,  which  the  secret  itself  it  would  seem 
ought  to  have  prevented  taking  place.  When  a  philosopher 
had  discovered  the  art  of  prolonging  life  to  an  indefinite 
period,  it  is  most  provoking  to  find  that  he  should  have 
allowed  himself  to  die  at  an  early  age !  We  have  a  very 
authentic  history  from  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  himself,  that  when 
he  went  in  disguise  to  visit  Descartes  at  his  retirement  at 
Egmond,  lamenting  the  brevity  of  life,  which  hindered 
philosophers  getting  on  in  their  studies,  the  French  philoso- 
pher assured  him  that  "  he  had  considered  that  matter ;  to 


186         DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


render  a  man  immortal  was  what  he^  could  not  promise,  but 
that  he  was  very  sure  it  was  possible  to  lengthen  out  his  life 
to  the  period  of  the  patriarchs."  And  when  his  death  was 
announced  to  the  world,  the  Abbe  Picot,  an  ardent  disciple, 
for  a  long  time  would  not  believe  it  possible ;  and  at  length 
insisted,  that  if  it  had  occurred,  it  must  have  been  owing  to 
some  mistake  of  the  philosopher's. 

The  late  Holcroft,  Loutherbourg,  and  Cos  way,  imagined 
that  they  should  escape  the  vulgar  era  of  scriptural  life  by 
reorganizing  their  old  bones,  and  moistening  their  dry  mar- 
row ;  their  new  principles  of  vitality  were  supposed  by  them 
to  be  found  in  the  powers  of  the  mind  ;  this  seemed  more 
reasonable,  but  proved  to  be  as  little  efficacious  as  those  other 
philosophers,  who  imagine  they  have  detected  the  hidden 
principle  of  life  in  the  eels  frisking  in  vinegar,  and  allude  to 
•  "  the  bookbinder  who  creates  the  book-worm  ! " 

Paracelsus  has  revealed  to  us  one  of  the  grandest  secrets 
of  nature.  When  the  world  began  to  dispute  on  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  elementary  folk,  it  was  then  that  he  boldly 
offered  to  give  birth  to  a  fairy,  and  has  sent  down  to  posterity 
the  recipe.  He  describes  the  impurity  which  is  to  be  trans- 
muted into  such  purity,  the  gross  elements  of  a  delicate  fairy, 
which,  fixed  in  a  phial,  placed  in  fuming  dung,  will  in  due 
time  settle  into  a  full-grown  fairy,  bursting  through  its  vit- 
reous prison — on  the  vivifying  principle  by  which  the  ancient 
Egyptians  hatched  their  eggs  in  ovens.  I  recollect,  at  Dr. 
Farmer's  sale,  the  leaf  which  preserved  this  recipe  for  mak- 
ing a  fairy,  forcibly  folded  down  by  the  learned  commentator ; 
from  which  we  must  infer  the  credit  he  gave  to  the  experi- 
ment. There  was  a  greatness  of  mind  in  Paracelsus,  who, 
having  furnished  a  recipe  to  make  a  fairy,  had  the  delicacy 
to  fefrain  from  its  formation.  Even  Baptista  Porta,  one  of 
the  most  enlightened  philosophers,  does  not  deny  the  possibil- 
ity of  engendering  creatures,  which,  "  at  their  full  growth 
shall  not  exceed  the  size  of  a  mouse  ;"  but  he  adds  "  they 
are  only  pretty  little  dogs  to  play  with."  Were  these  akin 
to  the  fames  of  Paracelsus  ? 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  187 


They  were  well  convinced  of  the  existence  of  such  ele- 
mental beings ;  frequent  accidents  in  mines  showed  the 
potency  of  the  metallic  spirits  ;  which  so  tormented  the  work- 
men in  some  of  the  German  mines,  by  blindness,  giddiness, 
and  sudden  sickness,  that  they  have  been  obliged  to  abandon 
mines  well  known  to  be  rich  in  silver.  A  metallic  spirit  at 
one  sweep  annihilated  twelve  miners,  who  were  all  found 
dead  together.  The  fact  was  unquestionable  ;  and  the  safety- 
lamp  was  undiscovered. 

Never  was  a  philosophical  imagination  more  beautiful  than 
that  exquisite  Palingenesis,  as  it  has  been  termed  from  the 
Greek,  or  a  regeneration  :  or  rather,  the  apparitions  of  ani- 
mals, and  plants.  Schott,  Kircher,  Gaffarel,  Borelli,  Digby, 
and  the  whole  of  that  admirable  school,  discovered  in  the 
ashes  of  plants  their  primitive  forms,  which  were  again  raised 
up  by  the  force  of  heat.  Nothing,  they  say,  perishes  in  na- 
ture ;  all  is  but  a  continuation,  or  a  revival.  The  semina  of 
resurrection  are  concealed  in  extinct  bodies,  as  in  the  blood 
of  man;  the  ashes  of  roses  will  again  revive  into  roses, 
though  smaller  and  paler  than  if  they  had  been  planted ;  un- 
substantial and  unodoriferous,  they  are  not  roses  which  grow 
on  rose-trees,  but  their  delicate  apparitions ;  and,  like  appa- 
ritions, they  are  seen  but  for  a  moment !  The  process  of  the 
Palingenesis,  this  picture  of  immortality,  is  described.  These 
philosophers  having  burnt  a  flower,  by  calcination  disengaged 
the  salts  from  its  ashes,  and  deposited  them  in  a  glass  phial ; 
a  chemical  mixture  acted  on  it,  till  in  the  fermentation  they 
assumed  a  bluish  and  a  spectral  hue.  This  dust,  thus  excited 
by  heat,  shoots  upwards  into  its  primitive  forms ;  by  sympathy 
the  parts  unite,  and  while  each  is  returning  to  its  destined 
place,  we  see  distinctly  the  stalk,  the  leaves,  and  the  flower, 
arise ;  it  is  the  pale  spectre  of  a  flower  coming  slowly  forth 
from  its  ashes.  The  heat  passes  away,  the  magical  scene 
declines,  till  the  whole  matter  again  precipitates  itself  into 
the  chaos  at  the  bottom.  This  vegetable  phoenix  lies  thus 
concealed  in  its  cold  ashes,  till  the  presence  of  heat  produces 


18S         DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


this  resurrection — in  its  absence  it  returns  to  its  death.  Thus 
the  dead  naturally  revive  ;  and  a  corpse  may  give  out  its 
shadowy  reanirnation,  when  not  too  deeply  buried  in  the 
earth.  Bodies  corrupted  in  their  graves  have  risen,  particu- 
larly the  murdered;  for  murderers  are  apt  to  bury  their  vic- 
tims in  a  slight  and  hasty  manner.  Their  salts,  exhaled  in 
vapour  by  means  of  their  fermentation,  have  arranged  them- 
selves on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  formed  those  phantoms, 
which  at  night  have  often  terrified  the  passing  spectator,  as 
authentic  history  witnesses.  They  have  opened  the  graves 
of  the  phantom,  and  discovered  the  bleeding  corpse  beneath; 
hence  it  is  astonishing  how  many  ghosts  may  be  seen  at 
night,  after  a  recent  battle,  standing  over  their  corpses  !  On 
the  same  principle,  my  old  philosopher  Gaffarel  conjectures 
on  the  raining  of  frogs ;  but  these  frogs,  we  must  conceive, 
can  only  be  the  ghosts  of  frogs  ;  and  Gaffarel  himself  has 
modestly  opened  this  fact  by  a  "  peradventure."  A  more 
satisfactory  origin  of  ghosts  modern  philosophy  has  not 
afforded. 

And  who  does  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  ghosts  ?  for, 
as  Dr.  More  forcibly  says,  "  That  there  should  be  so  univer- 
sal a  fame  and  fear  of  that  which  never  was,  nor  is,  nor  can 
be  ever  in  the  world,  is  to  me  the  greatest  miracle  of  all.  If 
there  had  not  been,  at  some  time  or  other,  true  miracles,  it 
had  not  been  so  easy  to  impose  on  the  people  by  false.  The 
alchemist  would  never  go  about  to  sophisticate  metals  to 
pass  them  off  for  true  gold  and  silver,  unless  that  such 
a  thing  was  acknowledged  as  true  gold  and  silver  in  the 
world." 

The  pharmacopoeia  of  those  times  combined  more  of 
inorals  with  medicine  than  our  own.  They  discovered  that 
the  agate  rendered  a  man  eloquent  and  even  witty ;  a  laurel 
leaf  placed  on  the  centre  of  the  skull,  fortified  the  memory ; 
the  brains  of  fowls,  and  birds  of  swift  wing,  wonderfully 
helped  the  imagination.  All  such  specifics  have  now  disap- 
peared, and  have  greatly  reduced  the  chances  of  an  invalid 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


recovering  that  which  perhaps  he  never  possessed.  Lentils 
and  rape-seed  were  a  certain  cure  for  the  smallpox,  and  very 
obviously — their  grains  resembling  the  spots  of  this  disease. 
They  discovered  that  those  who  lived  on  "  fair  "  plants  be- 
came fair,  those  on  fruitful  ones  were  never  barren;  on  the 
principle  that  Hercules  acquired  his  mighty  strength  by  feed- 
ing on  the  marrow  of  lions.  But  their  talismans,  provided 
they  were  genuine,  seem  to  have  been  wonderfully  operative ; 
and  had  we  the  same  confidence,  and  melted  down  the  guin- 
eas we  give  physicians,  engraving  on  them  talismanic  figures, 
I  would  answer  for  the  good  effects  of  the  experiment. 
Naude,  indeed,  has  utterly  ridiculed  the  occult  virtues  of 
talismans,  in  his  defence  of  Virgil,  accused  of  being  a  magi- 
cian :  the  poet  it  seems,  cast  into  a  well  a  talisman  of  a  horse- 
leech, graven  on  a  plate  of  gold,  to  drive  away  the  great 
number  of  horse-leeches  which  infested  Naples.  Naude 
positively  denies  that  talismans  ever  possessed  any  such 
occult  virtues :  Gaffarel  regrets  that  so  judicious  a  man  as 
Naude  should  have  gone  this  length,  giving  the  lie  to  so  many 
authentic  authors  ;  and  Naude's  paradox  is,  indeed,  as  strange 
as  his  denial ;  he  suspects  the  thing  is  not  true  because  it  is 
so  generally  told !  "It  leads  one  to  suspect,"  says  he,  "as 
animals  are  said  to  have  been  driven  away  from  so  many 
places  by  these  talismans,  whether  they  were  ever  driven  from 
any  one  place."  Gaffarel,  suppressing  by  his  good  temper 
his  indignant  feelings  at  such  reasoning,  turns  the  paradox 
on  its  maker:  "As  if,  because  of  the  great  number  of  battles 
that  Hannibal  is  reported  to  have  fought  with  the  Romans, 
we  might  not,  by  the  same  reason,  doubt  whether  he  fought 
any  one  with  them."  The  reader  must  be  aware  that  the 
strength  of  the  argument  lies  entirely  with  the  firm  believer 
in  talismans.  Gaffarel,  indeed,  who  passed  his  days  in  col- 
lecting "  Curiosites  inouies,"  is  a  most  authentic  historian  of 
unparalleled  events,  even  in  his  own  times !  Such  as  that 
heavy  rain  in  Poitou,  Avhich  showered  down  "  petites  besti- 
oles,"  little  creatures  like  bishops  with  their  mitres,  and  monks 


100         DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


with  their  capuchins  over  their  heads  ;  it  is  true,  afterwards 
they  all  turned  into  butterflies ! 

The  museums,  the  cabinets,  and  the  inventions  of  our  early 
virtuosi,  were  the  baby-houses  of  philosophers.  Baptista 
Porta,  Bishop  Wilkins,  and  old  Ashmole,  were  they  now 
living,  had  been  enrolled  among  the  quiet  members  of  "  The 
Society  of  Arts,"  instead  of  flying  in  the  air,  collecting  "a 
wing  of  the  Phoenix,  as  tradition  goes ; "  or  catching  the  dis- 
jointed syllables  of  an  old  doting  astrologer.  But  these 
early  dilettanti  had  not  derived  the  same  pleasure  from  the 
useful  inventions  of  the  aforesaid  "  Society  of  Arts,"  as  they 
received  from  what  Cornelius  Agrippa,  in  a  fit  of  spleen, 
calls  "things  vain  and  superfluous,  invented  to  no  other  end 
but  for  pomp  and  idle  pleasure."  Baptista  Porta  was  more 
skilful  in  the  mysteries  of  art  and  nature  than  any  man  in 
his  day.  Having  founded  the  Academy  degli  Oziosi,  he  held 
an  inferior  association  in  his  own  house,  called  di  Secreti, 
where  none  was  admitted  but  those  elect  who  had  communi- 
cated some  secret ;  for,  in  the  early  period  of  modern  art  and 
science,  the  slightest  novelty  became  a  secret,  not  to  be  con- 
fided to  the  uninitiated.  Porta  was  unquestionably  a  fine 
genius,  as  his  works  still  show;  but  it  was  his  misfortune  that 
he  attributed  his  own  penetrating  sagacity  to  his  skill  in  the 
art  of  divination.  He  considered  himself  a  prognosticator ; 
and,  what  was  more  unfortunate,  some  eminent  persons  really 
thought  he  was.  Predictions  and  secrets  are  harmless,  pro- 
vided they  are  not  believed ;  but  his  Holiness  finding  Porta's 
were,  warned  him  that  magical  sciences  were  great  hin- 
drances to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  paid  him  the  compli- 
ment to  forbid  his  prophesying.  Porta's  genius  was  now 
limited,  to  astonish,  and  sometimes  to  terrify,  the  more  in- 
genious part  of  /  Secreti.  On  entering  his  cabinet,  some 
phantom  of  an  attendant  was  sure  to  be  hovering  in  the  air, 
moving  as  he  who  entered  moved ;  or  he  observed  in  some 
mirror  that  his  face  was  twisted  on  the  wrong  side  of  his 
shoulders,  and  did  not  quite  think  that  all  was  right  when  he 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


191 


clapped  his  hand  on  it ;  or  passing  through  a  darkened  apart- 
ment a  magical  landscape  burst  on  him,  with  human  beings 
in  motion,  the  boughs  of  trees  bending,  and  the  very  clouds 
passing  over  the  sun  ;  or  sometimes  banquets,  battles,  and 
hunting-parties,  were  in  the  same  apartment.  "All  these 
spectacles  my  friends  have  witnessed ! "  exclaims  the  self- 
delighted  Baptista  Porta.  When  his  friends  drank  wine  out 
of  the  same  cup  which  he  had  used,  they  were  mortified  with 
wonder ;  for  he  drank  wine,  and  they  only  water  !  or  on  a 
summer's  day,  when  all  complained  of  the  sirocco,  he  would 
freeze  his  guests  with  cold  air  in  the  room ;  or,  on  a  sudden, 
let  off  a  flying  dragon  to  sail  along  with  a  cracker  in  its  tail, 
and  a  cat  tied  on  his  back ;  shrill  was  the  sound,  and  awful 
was  the  concussion  ;  so  that  it  required  strong  nerves,  in  an 
age  of  apparitions  and  devils,  to  meet  this  great  philosopher 
when  in  his  best  humour.  Albertus  Magnus  entertained  the 
Earl  of  Holland,  as  that  earl  passed  through  Cologne,  in  a 
severe  winter,  with  a  warm  summer  scene,  luxuriant  in  fruits 
and  flowers.  The  fact  is  related  by  Trithemius — and  this 
magical  scene  connected  with  his  vocal  head,  and  his  books 
De  Secretis  Mulierum,  and  De  Mirabilibus,  confirmed  the 
accusations  they  raised  against  the  great  Albert,  for  being  a 
magician.  His  apologist,  Theophilus  Raynaud,  is  driven  so 
hard  to  defend  Albertus,  that  he  at  once  asserts,  the  winter 
changed  to  summer,  and  the  speaking  head,  to  be  two  in- 
famous flams  !  He  will  not  believe  these  authenticated  facts, 
although  he  credits  a  miracle  which  proves  the  sanctity  of 
Albertus, — after  three  centuries,  the  body  of  Albert  the 
Great  remained  as  sweet  as  ever! 

"Whether  such  enchauntments,"  as  old  Mandeville  cau- 
tiously observeth,  two  centuries  preceding  the  days  of  Porta, 
were  "by  craft  or  by  nygromancye,  I  wot  nere."  But 
that  they  were  not  unknown  to  Chaucer,  appears  in  his 
"  Frankelein's  Tale,"  where,  minutely  describing  them,  he 
communicates  the  same  pleasure  he  must  himself  have  re- 
ceived from  the  ocular  illusions  of  "  the  Tregetoure,"  or 


192 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


<;  Jogelour."  Chaucer  ascribes  the  miracle  to  a  "  naturall 
magique !  "  in  which,  however,  it  was  as  unsettled,  whether 
the  "  Prince  of  Darkness  "  was  a  party  concerned. 

"  For  I  am  siker  that  there  he  sciences 
By  which  men  maken  divers  apparences 
Swiche  as  thise  subtil  tregetoures  play. 
For  oft  at  festes  have  I  wel  herd  say 
That  tregetoures,  within  an  halle  large, 
Have  made  come  in  a  water  and  a  barge, 
And  in  the  halle  rowen  up  and  doun. 
Sometime  hath  semed  come  a  grim  leoun, 
And  sometime  floures  spring  as  in  a  mede, 
Sometime  a  vine  and  grapes  white  and  rede, 
Sometime  a  castel  al  of  lime  and  ston, 
And  whan  hem  liketh  voideth  it  anon: 
Thus  semeth  it  to  every  mannes  sight." 

Bishop  Wilkins's  museum  was  visited  by  Evelyn,  who 
describes  the  sort  of  curiosities  which  occupied  and  amused 
the  children  of  science.  "  Here,  too,  there  was  a  hollow 
statue,  which  gave  a  voice,  and  uttered  words  by  a  long  con- 
cealed pipe  that  went  to  its  mouth,  whilst  one  speaks  through 
it  at  a  good  distance  :  "  a  circumstance,  which,  perhaps,  they 
were  not  then  aware  revealed  the  whole  mystery  of  the 
ancient  oracles,  which  they  attributed  to  demons,  rather  than 
to  tubes,  pulleys,  and  wheels.  The  learned  Charles  Patin, 
in  his  scientific  travels,  records,  among  other  valuable  pro- 
ductions of  art,  a  cherry-stone,  on  which  were  engraven 
about  a  dozen  and  a  half  of  portraits  !  Even  the  greatest  of 
human  geniuses,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  to  attract  the  royal 
patronage,  created  a  lion  which  ran  before  the  French  mon- 
arch, dropping  fleurs  de  Us  from  its  shaggy  breast.  And 
another  philosopher  who  had  a  spinet  which  played  and 
stopped  at  command,  might  have  made  a  revolution  in  the 
arts  and  sciences,  had  the  half-stifled  child  that  was  concealed 
in  it  not  been  forced,  unluckily,  to  crawl  into  day-light,  and 
thus  it  was  proved  that  a  philosopher  might  be  an  impostor! 

The  arts,  as  well  as  the  sciences,  at  the  first  institution  of 
the  Royal  Society,  were  of  the  most  amusing  class.  The 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


103 


famous  Sir  Samuel  Moreland  had  turned  his  house  into  an 
enchanted  palace.  Every  thing  was  full  of  devices,  which 
showed  art  and  mechanism  in  perfection :  his  coach  carried 
a  travelling  kitchen ;  for  it  had  a  fireplace  and  grate,  with 
which  he  could  make  a  soup,  broil  cutlets,  and  roast  an  egg ; 
and  he  dressed  his  meat  by  clock-work.  Another  of  these 
virtuosi,  who  is  described  as  "  a  gentleman  of  superior  order, 
and  whose  house  was  a  knick-knackatory,"  valued  himself  on 
his  multifarious  inventions,  but  most  in  "  sowing  salads  in  the 
morning,  to  be  cut  for  dinner."  The  house  of  Winstanley, 
who  afterwards  raised  the  first  Eddystone  light-house,  must 
have  been  the  wonder  of  the  age.  If  you  kicked  aside  an 
old  slipper,  purposely  lying  in  your  way,  up  started  a  ghost 
before  you ;  or  if  you  sat  down  in  a  certain  chair,  a  couple 
of  gigantic  arms  would  immediately  clasp  you  in.  There 
was  an  arbour  in  the  garden,  by  the  side  of  a  canal ;  you 
had  scarcely  seated  yourself  when  you  were  sent  out  afloat 
to  the  middle  of  the  canal — from  whence  you  could  not 
escape  till  this  man  of  art  and  science  wound  you  up  to  the 
arbour.  What  was  passing  at  the  "  Royal  Society,"  was 
also  occurring  at  the  "  Academie  des  Sciences "  at  Paris. 
A  great  and  gouty  member  of  that  philosophical  body,  on  the 
departure  of  a  stranger,  would  point  to  his  legs  to  show  the 
impossibility  of  conducting  him  to  the  door ;  yet  the  aston- 
ished visitor  never  failed  finding  the  virtuoso  waiting  for 
him  on  the  outside,  to  make  his  final  bow !  While  the  visitor 
was  going  down  stairs,  this  inventive  genius  was  descending 
with  great  velocity  in  a  machine  from  the  window :  so  that 
he  proved,  that  if  a  man  of  science  cannot  force  nature  to 
walk  down  stairs,  he  may  drive  her  out  at  the  window ! 

If  they  travelled  at  home,  they  set  off  to  note  down 
prodigies.  Dr.  Plott,  in  a  magnificent  project  of  journeying 
through  England,  for  the  advantage  of  "Learning  and 
Trade,"  and  the  discovery  of  "Antiquities  and  other  Curi- 
osities," for  which  he  solicited  the  royal  aid  which  Leland 
enjoyed,  among  other  notable  designs,  discriminates  a  class 

vol.  iv.  13 


194 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


thus :  "  Next  I  shall  inquire  of  animals ;  and  first  of  strange 
people." — "  Strange  accidents  that  attend  corporations  or 
families,  as  that  the  deans  of  Rochester  ever  since  the  foun- 
dation by  turns  have  died  deans  and  bishops  ;  the  bird  with 
a  white  breast  that  haunts  the  family  of  Oxenham  near 
Exeter  just  before  the  death  of  any  of  that  family ;  the 
bodies  of  trees  that  are  seen  to  swim  in  a  pool  near  Brereton 
in  Cheshire,  a  certain  warning  to  the  heir  of  that  honourable 
family  to  prepare  for  the  next  world."  And  such  remark- 
ables  as  "Number  of  children,  such  as  the  Lady  Temple, 
who  before  she  died  saw  seven  hundred  descended  from  her." 
This  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  who  lived  nearly  to  1700, 
was  requested  to  give  an  edition  of  Pliny :  we  have  lost  the 
benefit  of  a  most  copious  commentary !  Bishop  Hall  went 
to  "  the  Spa."  The  wood  about  that  place  was  haunted  not 
only  by  "  freebooters,  but  by  wolves  and  witches ;  although 
these  last  are  oft-times  but  one."  They  were  called  loups- 
garoux  ;  and  the  Greeks,  it  seems,  knew  them  by  the  name 
of  TiVKuvdpunoL,  men-wolves ;  witches  that  have  put  on  the 
shapes  of  those  cruel  beasts.  "  We  sawe  a  boy  there,  whose 
half-face  was  devoured  by  one  of  them  near  the  village ; 
yet  so,  as  that  the  eare  was  rather  cut  than  bitten  off." 
Rumour  had  spread  that  the  boy  had  had  half  his  face  de- 
voured ;  when  it  was  examined,  it  turned  out  that  his  ear 
had  only  been  scratched !  However,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  the  existence  of  "  witch-wolves ; "  for  Hall  saw  at  Lim- 
burgh  "  one  of  those  miscreants  executed,  who  confessed  on 
the  wheel  to  have  devoured  two-and-forty  children  in  that 
form."  They  would  probably  have  found  it  difficult  to  have 
summoned  the  mothers  who  had  lost  the  children.  But 
observe  our  philosopher's  reasoning:  "It  would  aske  a  large 
volume  to  scan  this  problem  of  lycanthropy."  He  had  labo- 
riously collected  all  the  evidence,  and  had  added  his  argu- 
ments: the  result  offers  a  curious  instance  of  acute  reasoning 
on  a  wrong  principle.* 
*  Hall's  postulate  is,  that  God's  work  could  not  admit  of  any  substan 


DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  195 


Men  of  science  and  art  then  passed  their  days  in  a  bustle 
of  the  marvellous.  I  will  furnish  a  specimen  of  philosoph- 
ical correspondence  in  a  letter  to  old  John  Aubrey.  The 
writer  betrays  the  versatility  of  his  curiosity  by  very  oppo- 
site discoveries.  "  My  hands  are  so  full  of  work  that  I  have 
no  time  to  transcribe  for  Dr.  Henry  More  an  account  of  the 
Barnstable  apparition — Lord  Keeper  North  would  take  it 
kindly  from  you — give  a  sight  of  this  letter  from  Barnstable 
to  Dr.  Whitchcot."  He  had  lately  heard  of  a  Scotchman 
who  had  been  carried  by  fairies  into  France  ;  but  the  purpose 
of  his  present  letter  is  to  communicate  other  sort  of  appari- 
tions than  the  ghost  of  Barnstable.  He  had  gone  to  Glas- 
tonbury, "  to  pick  up  a  few  berries  from  the  holy  thorn  which 
flowered  every  Christmas  day."  The  original  thorn  had 
been  cut  down  by  a  military  saint  in  the  civil  wars ;  but  the 
trade  of  the  place  was  not  damaged,  for  they  had  contrived 
not  to  have  a  single  holy  thorn,  but  several,  "  by  grafting  and 
inoculation."  He  promises  to  send  these  "berries;"  but 
requests  Aubrey  to  inform  "that  person  of  quality  who 
had  rather  have  a  bush,  that  it  was  impossible  to  get  one  for 
him.  I  am  told,"  he  adds,  "that  there  is  a  person  about 
Glastonbury  who  hath  a  nursery  of  them,  which  he  sells  for 
a  crown  a  piece,"  but  they  are  supposed  not  to  be  "  of  the 
right  kind." 

The  main  object  of  this  letter  is  the  writer's  "  suspicion  of 
gold  in  this  country ; "  for  which  he  offers  three  reasons. 
Tacitus  says  there  was  gold  in  England,  and  that  Agrippa 
came  to  a  spot  where  he  had  a  prospect  of  Ireland — from 

tial  change,  which  is  above  the  reach  of  all  infernal  powers ;  but  "  Herein 
the  divell  plays  the  double  sophister;  the  sorcerer  with  sorcerers.  Hee 
both  deludes  the  witch's  conceit  and  the  beholder's  eyes."  In  a  word, 
Hall  believes  in  what  he  cannot  understand !  Yet  Hall  will  not  believe  one 
of  the  Catholic  miracles  of  "the  Virgin  of  Lou  vain,"  though  Lipsius  had 
written  a  book  to  commemorate  "the  goddess,"  as  Hall  sarcastically  calls 
her.  Hall  was  told,  with  great  indignation,  in  the  shop  of  the  bookseller 
of  Lipsius,  that  when  James  the  First  had  just  looked  over  this  work,  he 
flung  it  down,  vociferating  "  Damnation  to  him  that  made  it,  and  to  him 
that  believes  it! " 


196         DREAMS  AT  THE  DAWN  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


which  place  he  writes;  secondly,  that  "an  honest  man"  had 
in  this  spot  found  stones  from  which  he  had  extracted  good 
gold,  and  that  he  himself  "  had  seen  in  the  broken  stones  a 
clear  appearance  of  gold ; "  and  thirdly,  "  there  is  a  story 
which  goes  by  tradition  in  that  part  of  the  country,  that  in 
the  hill  alluded  to  there  was  a  door  into  a  hole,  that  when 
any  wanted  money  they  used  to  go  and  knock  there,  that  a 
woman  used  to  appear,  and  give  to  such  as  came.  At  a 
time  one  by  greediness  or  otherwise  gave  her  offence,  she 
flung  to  the  door,  and  delivered  this  old  saying,  still  remem- 
bered in  the  country : 

'  When  all  the  Daws  be  gone  and  dead, 
Then  ....  Hill  shall  shine  gold  red.' 

My  fancy  is,  that  this  relates  to  an  ancient  family  of  this 
name,  of  which  there  is  now  but  one  man  left,  and  he  not 
likely  to  have  any  issue."  These  are  his  three  reasons ;  and 
some  mines  have  perhaps  been  opened  with  no  better  ones ! 
But  let  us  not  imagine  that  this  great  naturalist  was  credu- 
lous ;  for  he  tells  Aubrey  that  "  he  thought  it  was  but  a  monk- 
ish tale,  forged  in  the  abbey,  so  famous  in  former  time ;  but 
as  I  have  learned  not  to  despise  our  forefathers,  I  question 
whether  this  may  not  refer  to  some  rich  mine  in  the  hill, 
formerly  in  use,  and  now  lost.  I  shall  shortly  request  you  to 
discourse  with  my  lord  about  it,  to  have  advice,  &c.  In  the 
mean  time  it  will  be  best  to  keep  all  private  for  his  majesty's 
service,  his  lordship's,  and  perhaps  some  private  person's 
benefit."  But  he  has  also  positive  evidence :  "  A  mason  not 
long  ago  coming  to  the  renter  of  the  abbey  for  a  freestone, 
and  sawing  it,  out  came  divers  pieces  of  gold  of  £3  10s. 
value  apiece,  of  ancient  coins.  The  stone  belonged  to  some 
chimney-work  ;  the  gold  was  hidden  in  it,  perhaps  when  the 
Dissolution  was  near."  This  last  incident  of  finding  coins 
in  a  chimney-piece,  which  he  had  accounted  for  very  ration- 
ally, serves  only  to  confirm  his  dream,  that  they  were  coined 
out  of  the  gold  of  the  mine  in  the  hill ;  and  he  becomes 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


197 


more  urgent  for  "  a  private  search  into  these  mines,  which  I 
have,  I  think,  a  way  to."  In  the  postscript  he  adds  an 
account  of  a  well,  which  by  washing  wrought  a  cure  on  a 
person  deep  in  the  king's  evil.  "  I  hope  you  don't  forget 
your  promise  to  communicate  whatever  thing  you  have, 
relating  to  your  Idea." 

This  promised  Idea  of  Aubrey  may  be  found  in  his  MSS., 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Idea  of  Universal  Education." 
However  whimsical,  one  would  like  to  see  it.  Aubrey's  life 
might  furnish  a  volume  of  these  Philosophical  dreams ;  he 
was  a  person  who  from  his  incessant  bustle  and  insatiable 
curiosity  was  called  "  The  Carrier  of  Conceptions  of  the 
Royal  Society."  Many  pleasant  nights  were  "  privately " 
enjoyed  by  Aubrey  and  his  correspondent  about  the  "  Mine 
in  the  Hill ; "  Ashmole's  manuscripts  at  Oxford  contain  a 
collection  of  many  secrets  of  the  Rosicrucians  ;  one  of  the 
completest  inventions  is  "  a  Recipe  how  to  walk  invisible." 
Such  were  the  fancies  which  rocked  the  children  of  science 
in  their  cradles  !  and  so  feeble  were  the  steps  of  our  curious 
infancy ! — But  I  start  in  my  dreams !  dreading  the  reader 
may  also  have  fallen  asleep  ! 

"  Measure  is  most  excellent,"  says  one  of  the  oracles  ;  "  to 
which  also  we  being  in  like  manner  persuaded,  O  most 
friendly  and  pious  Asclepiades,  here  finish  " — the  dreams  at 
the  dawn  of  philosophy! 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR 

Literary  forgeries  recently  have  been  frequently  in- 
dulged in,  and  it  is  urged  that  they  are  of  an  innocent  nature ; 
but  impostures  more  easily  practised  than  detected  leave  their 
mischief  behind,  to  take  effect  at  a  distant  period ;  and  as  I 
shall  show,  may  entrap  even  the  judicious  !  It  may  require 
no  high  exertion  of  genius  to  draw  up  a  grave  account  of  an 


198 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


ancient  play-wright  whose  name  has  never  reached  us,  or  to 
give  an  extract  from  a  volume  inaccessible  to  our  inquiries  : 
and,  as  dulness  is  no  proof  of  spuriousness,  forgeries,  in 
time,  mix  with  authentic  documents. 

We  have  ourselves  witnessed  versions  of  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  poets,  which  are  passed  on  their  unsuspicious 
readers  without  difficulty,  but  in  which  no  parts  of  the  pie- 
tended  originals  can  be  traced ;  and  to  the  present  hour, 
whatever  antiquaries  may  affirm,  the  poems  of  Chatterton 
and  Ossian  are  veiled  in  mystery ! 

If  we  possessed  the  secret  history  of  the  literary  life  of 
George  Steevens,  it  would  display  an  unparalleled  series 
of  arch  deception  and  malicious  ingenuity.  He  has  been 
happily  characterized  by  Gifford,  as  "  the  Puck  of  Commen- 
tators \ "  Steevens  is  a  creature  so  spotted  over  with  literary 
forgeries  and  adulterations,  that  any  remarkable  one  about 
the  time  he  flourished  may  be  attributed  to  him.  They  were 
the  habits  of  a  depraved  mind,  and  there  was  a  darkness  in 
his  character  many  shades  deeper  than  belonged  to  Puck  ; 
even  in  the  playfulness  of  his  invention,  there  was  usually  a 
turn  of  personal  malignity,  and  the  real  object  was  not  so 
much  to  raise  a  laugh,  as  to  "  grin  horribly  a  ghastly  smile,'* 
on  the  individual.  It  is  more  than  rumoured,  that  he  carried 
his  ingenious  malignity  into  the  privacies  of  domestic  life ; 
and  it  is  to  be  regretted,  that  Mr.  Nichols,  who  might  have 
furnished  much  secret  history  of  this  extraordinary  literary 
forger,  has,  from  delicacy,  mutilated  his  collective  vigour. 

George  Steevens  usually  commenced  his  operations  by 
opening  some  pretended  discovery  in  the  evening  papers, 
which  were  then  of  a  more  literary  cast  than  they  are  at 
present ;  the  St.  James's  Chronicle,  the  General  E  vening 
Post,  or  the  Whitehall,  were  they  not  dead  in  body  and  in 
spirit,  would  now  bear  witness  to  his  successful  efforts.  The 
late  Mr.  Boswell  told  me,  that  Steevens  frequently  wrote 
notes  on  Shakspeare,  purposely  to  mislead  or  entrap  Malone, 
and  obtain  for  himself  an  easy  triumph  in  the  next  edition ! 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


199 


Steevens  loved  to  assist  the  credulous  in  getting  up  for  them 
some  strange  new  thing,  dancing  (hem  about  with  a  Will-o'- 
the-wisp — now  alarming  them  by  a  shriek  of  laughter !  and 
now  like  a  grinning  Pigwigging  sinking  them  chin-deep  into 
a  quagmire  !  Once  he  presented  them  with  a  fictitious  por- 
trait of  Shakspeare,  and  when  the  brotherhood  were  suffi- 
ciently divided  in  their  opinions,  he  pounced  upon  them  with 
a  demonstration,  that  every  portrait  of  Shakspeare  partook 
of  the  same  doubtful  authority  !  Steevens  usually  assumed 
a  nom  de  guerre  of  Collins,  a  pseudo-commentator,  and  some- 
times of  Amner,  who  was  discovered  to  be  an  obscure  puri- 
tanic minister  who  never  read  text  or  notes  of  a  play-wright, 
whenever  he  explored  into  a  "thousand  notable  secrets"  with 
which  he  has  polluted  the  pages  of  Shakspeare  !  The  mar- 
vellous narrative  of  the  upas-tree  of  Java,  which  Darwin 
adopted  in  his  plan  of  "  enlisting  imagination  under  the 
banner  of  science,"  appears  to  have  been  another  forgery 
which  amused  our  "  Puck."  It  was  first  given  in  the  London 
Magazine,  as  an  extract  from  a  Dutch  traveller,  but  the  ex- 
tract was  never  discovered  in  the  original  author,  and  "  the 
effluvia  of  this  noxious  tree,  which  through  a  district  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  miles  had  killed  all  vegetation,  and  had 
spread  the  skeletons  of  men  and  animals,  affording  a  scene 
of  melancholy  beyond  what  poets  have  described,  or  painters 
delineated,"  is  perfectly  chimerical.  A  splendid  flim-flam  ! 
When  Dr.  Berkenhout  was  busied  in  writing,  without  much 
knowledge  or  skill,  a  history  of  our  English  authors,  Steevens 
allowed  the  good  man  to  insert  a  choice  letter  by  George 
Peele,  giving  an  account  of  a  "  merry  meeting  at  the  Globe," 
wherein  Shakspeare  said  Ben  Jonson  and  Ned  Alleyne  are 
admirably  made  to  perform  their  respective  parts.  As  the 
nature  of  the  "  Biographia  Literaria"  required  authorities, 
Steevens  ingeniously  added,  "  Whence  I  copied  this  letter  I 
do  not  recollect."  However,  he  well  knew  it  came  from  the 
"  Theatrical  Mirror,"  where  he  had  first  deposited  the  precious 
original,  to  which  he  had  unguardedly  ventured  to  affix  the 


200 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


date  of  1600  ;  unluckily,  Peele  was  discovered  to  have  died 
two  years  before  he  wrote  his  own  letter  !  The  date  is 
adroitly  dropped  in  Berkenhout !  Steevens  did  not  wish  to 
refer  to  his  original,  which  I  have  often  seen  quoted  as 
authority.  One  of  these  numerous  forgeries  of  our  Puck 
appears  in  an  article  in  Isaac  Reed's  catalogue,  art.  8708. 
"  The  Boke  of  the  Soldan,  conteyninge  strange  matters 
touchynge  his  lyfe  and  deathe,  and  the  ways  of  his  course,  in 
two  partes,  1 2mo.,"  with  this  marginal  note  by  Reed — "  The 
foregoing  was  written  by  George  Steevens,  Esq.  from  whom 
I  received  it.  It  was  composed  merely  to  impose  on  '  a  lit- 
erary friend,'  and  had  its  effect ;  for  he  was  so  far  deceived 
as  to  its  authenticity  that  he  gave  implicit  credit  to  it,  and  put 
down  the  person's  name  in  whose  possession  the  original 
books  were  supposed  to  be." 

One  of  the  sort  of  inventions  which  I  attribute  to  Steevens 
has  been  got  up  with  a  deal  of  romantic  effect,  to  embellish 
the  poetical  life  of  Milton ;  and  unquestionably  must  have 
sadly  perplexed  his  last  matter-of-fact  editor,  who  is  not  a 
man  to  comprehend  a  flim-flam  ! — for  he  has  sanctioned  the 
whole  fiction,  by  preserving  it  in  his  biographical  narrative  ! 
The  first  impulse  of  Milton  to  travel  in  Italy  is  ascribed  to 
the  circumstance  of  his  having  been  found  asleep  at  the  foot 
of  a  tree  in  the  vicinity  of  Cambridge,  when  two  foreign 
ladies,  attracted  by  the  loveliness  of  the  youthful  poet, 
alighted  from  their  carriage,  and  having  admired  him  for 
some  time  as  they  imagined  unperceived,  the  youngest,  who 
was  very  beautiful,  drew  a  pencil  from  her  pocket,  and  hav- 
ing written  some  lines,  put  the  paper  with  her  trembling  hand 
into  his  own  !  But  it  seems, — for  something  was  to  account 
how  the  sleeping  youth  could  have  been  aware  of  these 
minute  particulars,  unless  he  had  been  dreaming  them, — that 
the  ladies  had  been  observed  at  a  distance  by  some  friends 
of  Milton,  and  they  explained  to  him  the  whole  silent  adven- 
ture. Milton  on  opening  the  paper  read  four  verses  from 
Guarini,  addressed  to  those  "human  stars,"  his  own  eyes! 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


201 


On  this  romantic  adventure,  Milton  set  off  for  Italy,  to  dis- 
cover the  fair  "  incognita,"  to  which  undiscovered  lady  we 
are  told  we  stand  indebted  for  the  most  impassioned  touches 
in  the  Paradise  Lost  !  We  know  how  Milton  passed  his 
time  in  Italy,  with  Dati,  and  Gaddi,  and  Frescobaldi,  and 
other  literary  friends,  amidst  its  academies,  and  often  busied 
in  book-collecting.  Had  Milton's  tour  in  Italy  been  an  ad- 
venture of  knight-errantry,  to  discover  a  lady  whom  he  had 
never  seen,  at  least  he  had  not  the  merit  of  going  out  of  the 
direct  road  to  Florence  and  Rome,  nor  of  having  once  alluded 
to  this  Dame  de  ses  pensees,  in  his  letters  or  inquiries  among 
his  friends,  who  would  have  thought  themselves  fortunate  to 
have  introduced  so  poetical  an  adventure  in  the  numerous 
canzoni  they  showered  on  our  youthful  poet. 

This  historiette,  scarcely  fitted  for  a  novel,  first  appeared 
where  generally  Steevens's  literary  amusements  were  carried 
on,  in  the  General  Evening  Post,  or  the  St.  James's  Chron- 
icle :  and  Mr.  Todd,  in  the  improved  edition  of  Milton's  Life, 
obtained  this  spurious  original,  where  the  reader  may  find  it; 
but  the  more  curious  part  of  the  story  remains  to  be  told. 
Mr.  Todd  proceeds,  "  The  preceding  highly-coloured  relation, 
however,  is  not  singular  ;  my  friend,  Mr.  Walker,  points  out 
to  me  a  counterpart  in  the  extract  from  the  preface  to  Poesies 
de  Marguerite- Eleanor e  Clotilde,  depuis  Madame  de  Surville, 
Poke  Francois  du  XV.  Siecle.    Paris,  1803." 

And  true  enough  we  find  among  "  the  family  traditions " 
of  the  same  Clotilde,  that  Justine  de  Levis,  great-grand- 
mother of  this  unknown  poetess  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
walking  in  a  forest,  witnessed  the  same  beautiful  spectacle 
which  the  Italian  Unknown  had  at  Cambridge  ;  never  was 
such  an  impression  to  be  effaced,  and  she  could  not  avoid 
leaving  her  tablets  by  the  side  of  the  beautiful  sleeper,  de- 
claring her  passion  in  her  tablets  by  four  Italian  verses  I 
The  very  number  our  Milton  had  meted  to  him  !  Oh  !  these 
four  verses  !  they  are  as  fatal  in  their  number  as  the  date  of 
Peele's  letter  proved  to  George  Steevens !    Something  still 


202 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


escapes  in  the  most  ingenious  fabrication  which  serves  to  de- 
compose the  materials.  It  is  well  our  veracious  historian 
dropped  all  mention  of  Guarini — else  that  would  have  given 
that  coup  de  grace — a  fatal  anachronism  !  However,  his 
invention  supplied  him  with  more  originality  than  the  adop- 
tion of  this  story  and  the  four  verses  would  lead  us  to 
infer.  He  tells  us  how  Petrarch  was  jealous  of  the  genius 
of  his  Clotilde's  grandmother,  and  has  even  pointed  out  a 
sonnet  which,  "among  the  traditions  of  the  family,"  was  ad- 
dressed to  her !  He  narrates,  that  the  gentleman,  when  he 
fairly  awoke,  and  had  read  the  "four  verses,"  set  off  for  Italy, 
which  he  run  over  till  he  found  Justine,  and  Justine  found 
him,  at  a  tournament  at  Modena  !  This  parallel  adventure 
disconcerted  our  two  grave  English  critics — they  find  a  tale 
which  they  wisely  judge  improbable,  and  because  they  dis- 
cover the  tale  copied,  they  conclude  that  "it  is  not  singular!" 
This  knot  of  perplexity  is,  however,  easily  cut  through,  if  we 
substitute,  which  we  are  fully  justified  in,  for  "  Poete  du  XV. 
Siecle  "— "  du  XIX.  Siecle  ! "  The  "  Poesies  "  of  Clotilde 
are  as  genuine  a  fabrication  as  Chatterton's  ;  subject  to  the 
same  objections,  having  many  ideas  and  expressions  which 
which  were  unknown  in  the  language  at  the  time  they  are 
pretended  to  have  been  composed,  and  exhibiting  many  imi- 
tations of  Voltaire  and  other  poets.  The  present  story  of  the 
four  Italian  verses,  and  the  beautiful  Sleeper,  would  be  quite 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  authenticity  of  "  the  family  tradi- 
tions" of  Clotilde,  depuis  Madame  de  Surville,  and  also  of 
Monsieur  De  Surville  himself ;  a  pretended  editor,  who  is 
said  to  have  found  by  mere  accident  the  precious  manuscript, 
and  while  he  was  copying  for  the  press,  in  1793,  these  pretty 
poems,  for  such  they  are,  of  his  grande  tante,  was  shot  in  the 
reign  of  terror,  and  so  completely  expired,  that  no  one  could 
ever  trace  his  existence  !  The  real  editor,  who  we  must 
presume  to  be  the  poet,  published  them  in  1803. 

Such,  then,  is  the  history  of  a  literary  forgery !  A  Puck 
composes  a  short  romantic  adventure,  which  is  quietly  thrown 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


203 


out  to  the  world  in  a  newspaper  or  a  magazine ;  some  col* 
lector,  such  as  the  late  Mr.  Bindley,  who  procured  for  Mr. 
Todd  his  original,  as  idle  at  least  as  he  is  curious,  houses  the 
forlorn  fiction — and  it  enters  into  literary  history  !  A  French 
Chatterton  picks  up  the  obscure  tale,  and  behold,  astonishes 
the  literary  inquirers  of  the  very  country  whence  the  im- 
posture sprung  !  But  the  four  Italian  verses,  and  the  Sleep- 
ing Youth!  Oh!  Monsieur  Vanderbourg !  for  that  gentle- 
man is  the  ostensible  editor  of  Clotilde's  poesies  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  some  ingenious  persons  are  unlucky  in  this 
world !  Perhaps  one  day  we  may  yet  discover  that  this 
"  romantic  adventure  "  of  Milton  and  Justine  de  Levis  is  not 
so  original  as  it  seems — it  may  lie  hid  in  the  Astree  of 
D'Urfe,  or  some  of  the  long  romances  of  the  Scuderies, 
whence  the  English  and  the  French  Chattertons  may  have 
drawn  it.    To  such  literary  inventors  we  say  with  Swift: — 

 "  Such  are  your  tricks ; 

But  since  you  hatch,  pray  own  your  chicks !  " 

Will  it  be  credited  that  for  the  enjoyment  of  a  temporary 
piece  of  malice,  Steevens  would  even  risk  his  own  reputation 
as  a  poetical  critic  ?  Yet  this  he  ventured,  by  throwing  out 
of  his  edition  the  poems  of  Shakspeare,  with  a  remarkable 
hypercriticism,  that  "the  strongest  act  of  parliament  that 
could  be  framed  would  fail  to  compel  readers  into  their 
service."  Not  only  he  denounced  the  sonnets  of  Shakspeare, 
but  the  sonnet  itself,  with  an  absurd  question,  "  What  has 
truth  or  nature  to  do  with  Sonnets  ?  "  The  secret  history  of 
this  unwarrantable  mutilation  of  a  great  author  by  his  editor 
was,  as  I  was  informed  by  the  late  Mr.  Boswell,  merely  done 
to  spite  his  rival  commentator  Malone,  who  had  taken  extra- 
ordinary pains  in  their  elucidation.  Steevens  himself  had 
formerly  reprinted  them,  but  when  Malone  from  these  sonnets 
claimed  for  himself  one  ivy  leaf  of  a  commentator's  pride, 
behold,  Steevens  in  a  rage  would  annihilate  even  Shakspeare 
himself,  that  he  might  gain  a  triumph  over  Malone  !    In  the 


204 


ON  PUCK  THE  COMMENTATOR. 


same  spirit,  but  with  more  caustic  pleasantry,  he  opened  a 
controversy  with  Malone  respecting  Shakspeare's  wife  !  It 
seems  that  the  poet  had  forgotten  to  mention  his  wife  in  his 
copious  will ;  and  his  recollection  of  Mrs.  Shakspeare  seems 
to  mark  the  slightness  of  his  regard,  for  he  only  introduced 
by  an  interlineation,  a  legacy  to  her  of  his  "second  best  bed 
with  the  furniture  " — and  no;hing  more!  Malone  naturally 
inferred  that  the  poet  had  forgot  her,  and  so  recollected  her 
as  more  strongly  to  mark  how  little  he  esteemed  her.  He 
had  already,  as  it  is  vulgarly  expressed,  "  cut  her  off,  not 
indeed  with  a  shilling,  but  with  an  old  bed ! "  All  this  seems 
judicious,  till  Steevens  asserts  the  conjugal  affection  of  the 
bard,  tells  us,  that  the  poet  having,  when  in  health,  provided 
for  her  by  settlement,  or  knowing  that  her  father  had  already 
done  so,  (circumstances  entirely  conjectural,)  he  bequeathed 
to  her  at  his  death,  not  merely  an  old  piece  of  furniture,  but, 
perhaps,  as  a  mark  of  peculiar  tenderness, 

"  The  very  bed  that  on  his  bridal  night 
Received  him  to  the  arms  of  Belvidera! " 

Steevens's  severity  of  satire  marked  the  deep  malevolence 
of  his  heart ;  and  Murphy  has  strongly  portrayed  him  in  his 
address  to  the  Malevoli. 

Such  another  Puck  was  Horace  Walpole !  The  King  of 
Prussia's  "  Letter"  to  Rousseau,  and  "The  Memorial"  pre- 
tended to  have  been  signed  by  noblemen  and  gentlemen,  were 
fabrications,  as  he  confesses,  only  to  make  mischief.  It  well 
became  him,  whose  happier  invention,  the  Castle  of  Otranto, 
was  brought  forward  in  the  guise  of  forgery,  so  unfeelingly 
tc  have  reprobated  the  innocent  inventions  of  a  Chatterton. 

We  have  Pucks  busied  among  our  contemporaries :  who- 
ever shall  discover  their  history  will  find  it  copious  though 
intricate;  the  malignity  at  least  will  exceed,  tenfold,  the 
merriment. 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


205 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 

The  preceding  article  has  reminded  me  of  a  subject  by  no 
means  incurious  to  the  lovers  of  literature.  A  large  volume 
might  be  composed  on  literary  impostors ;  their  modes  of 
deception,  however,  were  frequently  repetitions  ;  particularly 
those  at  the  restoration  of  letters,  when  there  prevailed  a 
mania  for  burying  spurious  antiquities,  that  they  might  after- 
wards be  brought  to  light  to  confound  their  contemporaries. 
They  even  perplex  us  at  the  present  day.  More  sinister 
forgeries  have  been  performed  by  Scotchmen,  of  whom 
Archibald  Bower,  Lauder,  and  Macpherson,  are  well  known. 

Even  harmless  impostures  by  some  unexpected  accident 
have  driven  an  unwary  inquirer  out  of  the  course.  George 
Steevens  must  again  make  his  appearance  for  a  memorable 
trick  played  on  the  antiquary  Gough.  This  was  the  famous 
tombstone  on  which  was  engraved  the  drinking-horn  of 
Hardyknute,  to  indicate  his  last  fatal  carouse ;  for  this  royal 
Dane  died  drunk !  To  prevent  any  doubt,  the  name,  in 
Saxon  characters,  was  sufficiently  legible.  Steeped  in  pickle 
to  hasten  a  precocious  antiquity,  it  was  then  consigned  to  the 
corner  of  a  broker's  shop,  where  the  antiquarian  eye  of 
Gough  often  pored  on  the  venerable  odds  and  ends  ;  it  per- 
fectly succeeded  on  the  "  Director  of  the  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety." He  purchased  the  relic  for  a  trifle,  and  dissertations 
of  a  due  size  were  preparing  for  the  Archasologia !  *  Gough 
never  forgave  himself  nor  Steevens  for  this  flagrant  act  of 
inepitude.  On  every  occasion  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
when  compelled  to  notice  this  illustrious  imposition,  he 

*  I  have  since  been  informed  that  this  famous  invention  was  originally 
a  flim-flam  of  a  Mr.  Thomas  White,  a  noted  collector  and  dealer  in  anti- 
quities. But  it  was  Steevens  who  placed  it  in  the  broker's  shop,  where  he 
was  certain  of  catching  the  antiquary.  When  the  late  Mr.  Pegge,  a  pro- 
found brother,  was  preparing  to  write  a  dissertation  on  it,  the  first  inventor 
of  the  flam  stepped  forward  to  save  any  further  tragical  termination;  the 
wicked  wit  had  already  succeeded  too  well ! 


200 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


always  struck  out  his  own  name,  and  muffled  himself  up 
under  his  titular  office  of  "  The  Director  !  "  Gough  never 
knew  that  this  "  modern  antique  "  was  only  a  piece  of  retalia- 
tion. In  reviewing  Masters's  Life  of  Baker  he  found  two 
heads,  one  scratched  down  from  painted  glass  by  George 
Steevens,  who  would  have  passed  it  off  for  a  portrait  of  one 
of  our  kings.  Gough,  on  the  watch  to  have  a  fling  at  George 
Steevens,  attacked  his  graphic  performance,  and  reprobated 
a  portrait  which  had  nothing  human  in  it !  Steevens  vowed, 
that,  wretched  as  Gough  deemed  his  pencil  to  be,  it  should 
make  "  The  Director  "  ashamed  of  his  own  eyes,  and  be  fairly 
taken  in  by  something  scratched  much  worse.  Such  was  the 
origin  of  his  adoption  of  this  fragment  of  a  chimney-slab, 
which  I  have  seen,  and  with  a  better  judge  wondered  at 
the  injudicious  antiquary,  who  could  have  been  duped  by 
flie  slight  and  ill-formed  scratches,  and  even  with  a  false 
spelling  of  the  name,  which  however  succeeded  in  being 
passed  off  as  a  genuine  Saxon  inscription:  but  he  had 
counted  on  his  man.*  The  trick  is  not  so  original  as  it 
seems.  One  De  Grassis  had  engraved  on  marble  the  epitaph 
of  a  mule,  which  he  buried  in  his  vineyard :  some  time  after, 
having  ordered  a  new  plantation  on  the  spot,  the  diggers 
could  not  fail  of  disinterring  what  lay  ready  for  them.  The 
inscription  imported  that  one  Publius  Grassus  had  raised  this 
monument  to  Ins  mule !  De  Grassis  gave  it  out  as  an  odd 
coincidence  of  names,  and  a  prophecy  about  his  own  mule  ! 

*  The  stone  may  be  found  in  the  British  Museum.  HARDENVT  is  the 
reading  on  the  Harthacnut  stone;  but  the  true  orthography  of  the  name  is 
FIARBAENVT. 

Sylvanus  Urban,  my  once  excellent  and  old  friend,  seems  a  trifle  un- 
courteous  on  this  grave  occasion — He  tells  us,  however,  that  "  The  history 
of  this  wanton  trick,  with  a  facsimile  of  Schnebbelie's  drawing,  may  be 
seen  in  his  volume  Ix.  p.  217."  He  says  that  this  wicked  contrivance  of 
George  Steevens  was  to  entrap  this  famous  draftsman !  Does  Sylvanus 
then  deny  that  "the  Director"  was  not  also  "entrapped?  "  and  that  he 
always  struck  out  his  own  name  in  the  proof-sheets  of  the  Magazine,  sub- 
stituting his  official  designation,  by  which  the  whole  society  itself  seemed 
to  screen  "  the  Director!  " 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


207 


It  was  a  simple  joke !  The  marble  was  thrown  by,  and  no 
more  thought  of.  Several  years  after  it  rose  into  celebrity, 
for  with  the  erudite  it  then  passed  for  an  ancient  inscription, 
and  the  antiquary  Poracchi  inserted  the  epitaph  in  his  work 
on  "  Burials."  Thus  De  Grassis  and  his  mule,  equally 
respectable,  would  have  come  down  to  posterity,  had  not  the 
story  by  some  means  got  wind  !  An  incident  of  this  nature 
is  recorded  in  Portuguese  history,  contrived  with  the  inten- 
tion to  keep  up  the  national  spirit,  and  diffuse  hopes  of  the 
new  enterprise  of  Vasco  de  Gama,  who  had  just  sailed  on  a 
voyage  of  discovery  to  the  Indies.  Three  stones  were  dis- 
covered near  Cintra,  bearing  in  ancient  characters  a  Latin 
inscription ;  a  sibylline  oracle  addressed  prophetically  "  To 
the  inhabitants  of  the  West ! "  stating  that  when  these  three 
stones  shall  be  found,  the  Ganges,  the  Indus,  and  the  Tagus, 
should  exchange  their  commodities  !  This  was  the  pious 
fraud  of  a  Portuguese  poet,  sanctioned  by  the  approbation 
of  the  king.  When  the  stones  had  lain  a  sufficient  time  in 
the  damp  earth,  so  as  to  become  apparently  antique,  our  poet 
invited  a  numerous  party  to  a  dinner  at  his  country-house ; 
in  the  midst  of  the  entertainment  a  peasant  rushed  in,  an- 
nouncing the  sudden  discovery  of  this  treasure  !  The  in- 
scription was  placed  among  the  royal  collections  as  a  sacred 
curiosity !  The  prophecy  was  accomplished,  and  the  oracle 
was  long  considered  genuine  ! 

In  such  cases  no  mischief  resulted ;  the  annals  of  mankind 
were  not  confused  by  spurious  dynasties  and  fabulous  chro- 
nologies ;  but  when  literary  forgeries  are  published  by  those 
whose  character  hardly  admits  of  a  suspicion  that  they  are 
themselves  the  impostors,  the  difficulty  of  assigning  a  motive 
only  increases  that  of  forming  a  decision ;  to  adopt  or  reject 
them  may  be  equally  dangerous. 

In  this  class  we  must  place  Annius  of  Viterbo,  who  pub- 
lished a  pretended  collection  of  historians  of  the  remotest 
antiquity,  some  of  whose  names  had  descended  to  us  in  the 
works  of  ancient  writers,  while  their  works  themselves  had 


208 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


been  lost.  Afterwards  he  subjoined  commentaries  to  confirm 
their  authority  by  passages  from  known  authors.  These  at 
first  were  eagerly  accepted  by  the  learned ;  the  blunders  of 
the  presumed  editor,  one  of  which  was  his  mistaking  the 
right  name  of  the  historian  he  forged,  were  gradually  de- 
tected, till  at  length  the  imposture  was  apparent !  The  pre- 
tended originals  were  more  remarkable  for  their  number 
than  their  volume ;  for  the  whole  collection  does  not  exceed 
171  pages,  which  lessened  the  difficulty  of  the  forgery; 
while  the  commentaries  which  were  afterwards  published, 
must  have  been  manufactured  at  the  same  time  as  the  text. 
In  favour  of  Annius,  the  high  rank  he  occupied  at  the  Roman 
court,  his  irreproachable  conduct,  and  his  declaration  that  he 
had  recovered  some  of  these  fragments  at  Mantua,  and  that 
others  had  come  from  Armenia,  induced  many  to  credit 
these  pseudo-historians.  A  literary  war  soon  kindled ; 
Niceron  has  discriminated  between  four  parties  engaged  in 
this  conflict.  One  party  decried  the  whole  of  the  collection 
as  gross  forgeries ;  another  obstinately  supported  their  au- 
thenticity ;  a  third  decided  that  they  were  forgeries  before 
Annius  possessed  them,  who  was  only  credulous;  while  a 
fourth  party  considered  them  as  partly  authentic,  and 
ascribed  their  blunders  to  the  interpolations  of  the  editor,  to 
increase  their  importance.  Such  as  they  were,  they  scattered 
confusion  over  the  whole  face  of  history.  The  false  Berosus 
opens  his  history  before  the  deluge,  when,  according  to  him, 
the  Chaldeans  through  preceding  ages  had  faithfully  pre- 
served their  historical  evidences !  Annius  hints,  in  his 
commentary,  at  the  archives  and  public  libraries  of  the 
Babylonians:  the  days  of  Noah  comparatively  seemed 
modern  history  with  this  dreaming  editor.  Some  of  the 
fanciful  writers  of  Italy  were  duped :  Sansovino,  to  delight 
the  Florentine  nobility,  accommodated  them  with  a  new  title 
of  antiquity  in  their  ancestor  Noah,  Imperatore  e  monarcha 
delle  genti,  visse  e  mori  in  quelle  parti.  The  Spaniards  com- 
plained that  in  forging  these  fabulous  origins  of  different 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


209 


nations,  a  new  series  of  kings  from  the  ark  of  Noah  had  been 
introduced  by  some  of  their  rhodoraontade  historians  to  pol- 
lute the  sources  of  their  history.  Bodin's  otherwise  valuable 
works  are  considerably  injured  by  Annius's  supposititious 
discoveries.  One  historian  died  of  grief,  for  having  raised 
his  elaborate  speculations  on  these  fabulous  originals  ;  and 
their  credit  was  at  length  so  much  reduced,  that  Pignoria 
and  Maffei  both  announced  to  their  readers  that  they  had 
not  referred  in  their  works  to  the  pretended  writers  of  An- 
nius  !  Yet,  to  the  present  hour,  these  presumed  forgeries 
are  not  always  given  up.  The  problem  remains  unsolved 
— and  the  silence  of  the  respectable  Annius,  in  regard  to  the 
forgery,  as  well  as  what  he  affirmed  when  alive,  leave  us  in 
doubt  whether  he  really  intended  to  laugh  at  the  world  by 
these  fairy  tales  of  the  giants  of  antiquity.  Sanchoniathon, 
as  preserved  by  Eusebius,  may  be  classed  among  these  an- 
cient writings,  or  forgeries,  and  has  been  equally  rejected 
and  defended. 

Another  literary  forgery,  supposed  to  have  been  grafted 
on  those  of  Annius,  involved  the  Inghirami  family.  It  was 
by  digging  in  their  grounds  that  they  discovered  a  number 
of  Etruscan  antiquities,  consisting  of  inscriptions,  and  also 
fragments  of  a  chronicle,  pretended  to  have  been  composed 
sixty  years  before  the  vulgar  era.  The  characters  on  the 
marbles  were  the  ancient  Etruscan,  and  the  historical  work 
tended  to  confirm  the  pretended  discoveries  of  Annius.  They 
were  collected  and  enshrined  in  a  magnificent  folio  by  Cur- 
tius  Inghirami,  who,  a  few  years  after,  published  a  quarto 
volume  exceeding  one  thousand  pages  to  support  their  au- 
thenticity. Notwithstanding  the  erudition  of  the  forger, 
these  monuments  of  antiquity  betrayed  their  modern  condi- 
ment. There  were  uncial  letters  which  no  one  knew ;  but 
these  were  said  to  be  undiscovered  ancient  Etruscan  charac- 
ters ;  it  was  more  difficult  to  defend  the  small  italic  letters, 
for  they  were  not  used  in  the  age  assigned  to  them ;  besides 
that  there  were  dots  on  the  letter  i,  a  custom  not  practised 

VOL.  IV.  14 


210 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


till  the  eleventh  century.  The  style  was  copied  from  the 
Latin  of  the  Psalms  and  the  Breviary ;  but  Inghirami  dis- 
covered that  there  had  been  an  intercourse  between  the 
Etruscans  and  the  Hebrews,  and  that  David  had  imitated 
the  writings  of  Noah  and  his  descendants  !  Of  Noah  the 
chronicle  details  speeches  and  anecdotes ! 

The  Romans,  who  have  preserved  so  much  of  the  Etrus* 
cans,  had  not,  however,  noticed  a  single  fact  recorded  in 
these  Etruscan  antiquities.  Inghirami  replied,  that  the 
manuscript  was  the  work  of  the  secretary  of  the  college  of 
the  Etrurian  augurs,  who  alone  was  permitted  to  draw  his 
materials  from  the  archives,  and  who,  it  would  seem,  was 
the  only  scribe  who  has  favoured  posterity  with  so  much 
secret  history.  It  was  urged  in  favour  of  the  authenticity 
of  these  Etruscan  monuments,  that  Inghirami  was  so  young 
an  antiquary  at  the  time  of  the  discovery,  that  he  could  not 
even  explain  them ;  and  that  when  fresh  researches  were 
made  on  the  spot,  other  similar  monuments  were  also  disin- 
terred, where  evidently  they  had  long  lain  ;  the  whole  affair, 
however  contrived,  was  confined  to  the  Inghirami  family. 
One  of  them,  half  a  century  before,  had  been  the  librarian  1 
of  the  Vatican,  and  to  him  is  ascribed  the  honour  of  the 
forgeries  which  he  buried  where  he  was  sure  they  would  be 
found.  This,  however,  is  a  mere  conjecture !  Inghirami, 
who  published  and  defended  their  authenticity,  was  not  con- 
cerned in  their  fabrication  ;  the  design  was  probably  merely 
to  raise  the  antiquity  of  Volaterra,  the  family  estate  of  the 
Inghirami ;  and  for  this  purpose  one  of  its  learned  branches 
had  bequeathed  his  posterity  a  collection  of  spurious  historical 
monuments,  which  tended  to  overturn  all  received  ideas  on 
the  first  ages  of  history.* 

It  was  probably  such  impostures,  and  those  of  false  de- 

*  The  volume  of  these  pretended  Antiquities  is  entitled  Elruscarum  An- 
tiquitatum  Fragmenta,  fo.  Franc.  1637.  That  which  Inghirami  published 
to  defend  their  authenticity  is  in  Italian,  Discorso  sopra  V  Opposizioni  faite 
alV  Antichita  Toscane,  ito.  Firenze,  1645. 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


211 


cretals  of  Isidore,  which  were  forged  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  papal  supremacy,  and  for  eight  hundred  years  formed 
the  fundamental  basis  of  the  canon  law,  the  discipline  of  the 
church,  and  even  the  faith  of  Christianity,  which  led  to  the 
monstrous  pyrrhonism  of  father  Hardouin,  who,  with  im- 
mense erudition,  had  persuaded  himself,  that,  excepting  the 
Bible  and  Homer,  Herodotus,  Plautus,  Pliny  the  elder,  with 
fragments  of  Cicero,  Virgil,  and  Horace,  all  the  remains  of 
classical  literature  were  forgeries  of  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth centuries !  In  two  dissertations  he  imagined  that  he 
had  proved  that  the  iEneid  was  not  written  by  Virgil,  nor 
the  Odes  of  Horace  by  that  poet.  Hardouin  was  one  of 
those  wrong-headed  men,  who  once  having  fallen  into  a  delu- 
sion, whatever  afterwards  occurs  to  them  on  their  favourite 
subject  only  tends  to  strengthen  it.  He  died  in  his  own  faith ! 
He  seems  not  to  have  been  aware,  that  by  ascribing  such 
prodigal  inventions  as  Plutarch,  Thucydides,  Livy,  Tacitus, 
and  other  historians,  to  the  men  he  did,  he  was  raising  up  an 
unparalleled  age  of  learning  and  genius  when  monks  could 
only  write  meagre  chronicles,  while  learning  and  genius  them- 
selves lay  in  an  enchanted  slumber  with  a  suspension  of  all 
their  vital  powers. 

There  are  numerous  instances  of  the  forgeries  of  smaller 
documents.  The  Prayer-Book  of  Columbus,  presented  to 
him  by  the  Pope,  which  the  great  discoverer  of  a  new  world 
bequeathed  to  the  Genoese  republic,  has  a  codicil  in  his  own 
writing  as  one  of  the  leaves  testifies,  but  as  volumes  com- 
posed against  its  authenticity  deny.  The  famous  description 
in  Petrarch's  Virgil,  so  often  quoted,  of  his  first  rencontre 
with  Laura  in  the  church  of  St.  Clair  on  a  Good  Friday, 
6  April,  1327,  it  has  been  recently  attempted  to  be  shown  is 
a  forgery.  By  calculation,  it  appears  that  the  6  April,  1327, 
fell  on  a  Monday !  The  Good  Friday  seems  to  have  been  a 
blunder  of  the  manufacturer  of  the  note.  He  was  entrapped 
by  reading  the  second  sonnet,  as  it  appears  in  the  printed 
editions ! 


212 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


u  Era  il  giorno  ch'  al  sol  si  scolorana 
Per  la  pieta  del  suo  fattore  i  rai." 

"  It  was  on  the  day  when  the  rays  of  the  sun  were  obscured 
by  compassion  for  his  Maker."  The  forger  imagined  this 
description  alluded  to  Good  Friday  and  the  eclipse  at  the 
Crucifixion.  But  how  stands  the  passage  in  the  MS.  in 
the  Imperial  Library  of  Vienna,  which  Abbe  Costaing  has 
found  ? 

"  Era  il  giorno  ch'  al  sol  di  color  raro 
Parve  la  pieta  da  suo  fattore,  ai  rai 
Quand  Io  fu  preso;  e  non  mi  guardai 
Che  ben  vostri  occhi  dentro  mi  legaro." 

"  It  was  on  the  day  that  I  was  captivated,  devotion  for  its 
Maker  appeared  in  the  rays  of  a  brilliant  sun,  and  I  did  not 
well  consider  that  it  was  your  eyes  that  enchained  me !  " 

The  first  meeting,  according  to  the  Abbe  Costaing,  was 
not  in  a  church,  but  in  a  meadow — as  appears  by  the  ninety- 
first  sonnet.  The  Laura  of  Sade  was  not  the  Laura  of  Pe- 
trarch ;  but  Laura  de  Baux,  unmarried,  and  who  died  young, 
residing  in  the  vicinity  of  Vaucluse.  Petrarch  had  often 
viewed  her  from  his  own  window,  and  often  enjoyed  her  so- 
ciety amidst  her  family.*  If  the  Abbe  Costaing's  discovery 
be  confirmed,  the  good  name  of  Petrarch  is  freed  from  the 
idle  romantic  passion  for  a  married  woman.  It  would  be  cu- 
rious if  the  famous  story  of  the  first  meeting  with  Laura  in 
the  church  of  St.  Clair  originated  in  the  blunder  of  the  forg- 
er's misconception  of  a  passage  which  was  incorrectly  printed, 
as  appears  by  existing  manuscripts  ! 

Literary  forgeries  have  been  introduced  into  bibliography ; 
dates  have  been  altered ;  fictitious  titles  affixed ;  and  books 

*  I  draw  this  information  from  a  little  "new  year's  gift,"  which  my 
learned  friend,  the  Rev.  S.  Weston,  presented  to  his  friends  in  1822,  enti- 
tled "  A  Visit  to  Vaucluse,"  accompanied  by  a  Supplement.  He  derives 
his  account  apparently  from  a  curious  publication  of  L'Abbe"  Costaing  de 
Pusigner  d'  Avignon,  which  I  with  other  inquirers  have  not  been  able  to 
procure,  but  which  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  examine,  before  we  can 
decide  on  the  very  curious  but  unsatisfactory  accounts  we  have  hitherto 
possessed  of  the  Laura  of  Petrarch. 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


213 


have  been  reprinted,  either  to  leave  out  or  to  interpolate 
whole  passages  !  I  forbear  entering  minutely  into  this  part 
of  the  history  of  literary  forgery,  for  this  article  has  already 
grown  voluminous.  When  we  discover,  however,  that  one  of 
the  most  magnificent  of  amateurs,  and  one  of  the  most  crit- 
ical of  bibliographers,  were  concerned  in  a  forgery  of  this 
nature,  it  may  be  useful  to  spread  an  alarm  among  collectors. 
The  Duke  de  la  Valliere,  and  the  Abbe  de  St.  Leger,  once 
concerted  together  to  supply  the  eager  purchaser  of  literary 
rarities  with  a  copy  of  De  Tribus  Impostoribus,  a  book,  by 
the  date,  pretended  to  have  been  printed  in  1598,  though, 
probably,  a  modern  forgery  of  1698.  The  title  of  such  a 
work  had  long  existed  by  rumour,  but  never  was  a  copy  seen 
by  man !  Works  printed  with  this  title  have  all  been 
proved  to  be  modern  fabrications.  A  copy,  however,  of  the 
introuvable  original  was  sold  at  the  Duke  de  la  Valliere's 
sale !  The  history  of  this  volume  is  curious.  The  Duke 
and  the  Abbe  having  manufactured  a  text,  had  it  printed  in 
the  old  Gothic  character,  under  the  title  De  Tribus  Imposto- 
ribus. They  proposed  to  put  the  great  bibliopolist,  De  Bure, 
in  good  humour,  whose  agency  would  sanction  the  imposture. 
They  were  afterwards  to  dole  out  copies  at  twenty-five  louis 
each,  which  would  have  been  a  reasonable  price  for  a  book 
which  no  one  ever  saw !  They  invited  De  Bure  to  dinner, 
flattered  and  cajoled  him,  and,  as  they  imagined  at  a  moment 
they  had  wound  him  up  to  their  pitch,  they  exhibited  their 
manufacture;  the  keen-eyed  glance  of  the  renowned  cata- 
loguer of  the  "  Bibliographic  Instructive  "  instantly  shot  like 
lightning  over  it,  and,  like  lightning,  destroyed  the  whole  edi- 
tion. He  not  only  discovered  the  forgery,  but  reprobated  it ! 
He  refused  his  sanction ;  and  the  forging  Duke  and  Abbe,  in 
confusion,  suppressed  the  livre  introuvable ;  but  they  owed 
a  grudge  to  the  honest  bibliographer,  and  attempted  to  write 
down  the  work  whence  the  De  Bures  derive  their  fame. 

Among  the  extraordinary  literary  impostors  of  our  age,  if 
we  except  Lauder,  who,  detected  by  the  Ithuriel  pen  of 


214 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


Bishop  Douglas,  lived  to  make  his  public  recantation  of  his 
audacious  forgeries,  and  Chatterton,  who  has  buried  his  inex- 
plicable story  in  his  own  grave  ;  a  tale,  which  seems  but  half 
told :  we  must  place  a  man  well  known  in  the  literary  world 
under  the  assumed  name  of  George  Psalmanazar.  He  com- 
posed his  autobiography  as  the  penance  of  contrition,  not  to 
be  published  till  he  was  no  more,  when  all  human  motives 
have  ceased  which  might  cause  his  veracity  to  be  suspected. 
The  life  is  tedious ;  but  I  have  curiously  traced  the  progress 
of  the  mind  in  an  ingenious  imposture,  which  is  worth  pre- 
servation. The  present  literary  forgery  consisted  of  personat- 
ing a  converted  islander  of  Formosa:  a  place  then  little  known 
but  by  the  reports  of  the  Jesuits,  and  constructing  a  language 
and  a  history  of  a  new  people,  and  a  new  religion,  entirely 
of  his  own  invention  !  This  man  was  evidently  a  native  of 
the  south  of  France ;  educated  in  some  provincial  college  of 
the  Jesuits,  where  he  had  heard  much  of  their  discoveries  of 
Japan ;  he  had  looked  over  their  maps,  and  listened  to  their 
comments.  He  forgot  the  manner  in  which  the  Japanese 
wrote ;  but  supposed,  like  orientalists,  they  wrote  from  the 
right  to  the  left,  which  he  found  difficult  to  manage.  He  set 
about  excogitating  an  alphabet ;  but  actually  forgot  to  give 
names  to  his  letters,  which  afterwards  baffled  him  before 
literary  men. 

He  fell  into  gross  blunders ;  having  inadvertently  affirmed 
that  the  Formosans  sacrificed  eighteen  thousand  male  infants 
annually,  he  persisted  in  not  lessening  the  number.  It  was 
proved  to  be  an  impossibility  in  so  small  an  island,  without 
occasioning  a  depopulation.  He  had  made  it  a  principle  in 
this  imposture  never  to  vary  when  he  had  once  said  a  thing. 
All  this  was  projected  in  haste,  fearful  of  detection  by  those 
about  him. 

He  was  himself  surprised  at  his  facility  of  invention,  and 
the  progress  of  his  forgery.  He  had  formed  an  alphabet,  a 
considerable  portion  of  a  new  language,  a  grammar,  a  new 
division  of  the  year  into  twenty  months,  and  a  new  religion  ! 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


215 


He  had  accustomed  himself  to  write  his  language ;  but  being 
an  inexpert  writer  with  the  unusual  way  of  writing  back- 
wards, he  found  this  so  difficult,  that  he  was  compelled  to 
change  the  complicated  forms  of  some  of  his  letters.  He  now 
finally  quitted  his  home,  assuming  the  character  of  a  Forin- 
osan  convert,  who  had  been  educated  by  the  Jesuits.  He  was 
then  in  his  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  year.  To  support  his  new 
character,  he  practised  some  religious  mummeries  ;  he  was 
seen  worshipping  the  rising  and  setting  sun.  He  made  a 
prayer-book  with  rude  drawings  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars, 
to  which  he  added  some  gibberish  prose  and  verse,  written  in 
his  invented  character,  muttering  or  chanting  it,  as  the  hu- 
mour took  him.  His  custom  of  eating  raw  flesh  seemed  to 
assist  his  deception  more  than  the  sun  and  moon. 

In  a  garrison  at  Sluys  he  found  a  Scotch  regiment  in  the 
Dutch  pay ;  the  commander  had  the  curiosity  to  invite  our 
Formosan  to  confer  with  Lines,  the  chaplain  to  his  regiment. 
This  Innes  was  probably  the  chief  cause  of  the  imposture 
being  carried  to  the  extent  it  afterwards  reached.  Innes 
was  a  clergyman,  but  a  disgrace  to  his  cloth.  As  soon  as  he 
fixed  his  eye  on  our  Formosan,  he  hit  on  a  project ;  it  was 
nothing  less  than  to  make  Psalmanazar  the  ladder  of  his  own 
ambition,  and  the  stepping-place  for  him  to  climb  up  to  a 
good  living!  Innes  was  a  worthless  character  ;  as  afterwards 
appeared,  when  by  an  audacious  imposition  Innes  practised 
on  the  Bishop  of  London,  he  avowed  himself  to  be  the  author 
of  an  anonymous  work,  entitled  "A  Modest  Inquiry  after 
Moral  Virtue ; "  for  this  he  obtained  a  good  living  in  Essex : 
the  real  author,  a  poor  Scotch  clergyman,  obliged  him  after- 
wards to  disclaim  the  work  in  print,  and  to  pay  him  the 
profit  of  the  edition  which  Innes  had  made  !  He  lost  his 
character,  and  retired  to  the  solitude  of  his  living;  if  not 
penitent,  at  least  mortified. 

Such  a  character  was  exactly  adapted  to  become  the  foster- 
father  of  imposture.  Innes  courted  the  Formosan,  and 
easily  won  on  the  adventurer,  who  had  hitherto  in  vain 


216 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


sought  for  a  patron.  Meanwhile  no  time  was  lost  by  Innes 
to  inform  the  unsuspicious  and  generous  Bishop  of  London 
of  the  prize  he  possessed — to  convert  the  Formosan  was  his 
ostensible  pretext ;  to  procure  preferment  his  concealed  mo- 
tive. It  is  curious  enough  to  observe,  that  the  ardour  of 
conversion  died  away  in  Innes,  and  the  most  marked  neglect 
of  his  convert  prevailed,  while  the  answer  of  the  bishop  was 
protracted  or  doubtful.  He  had  at  first  proposed  to  our 
Formosan  impostor  to  procure  his  discharge,  and  convey  him 
to  England ;  this  was  eagerly  consented  to  by  our  pliant  ad- 
venturer. A  few  Dutch  schellings,  and  fair  words,  kept  him 
in  good  humour ;  but  no  letter  coming  from  the  bishop,  there 
were  fewer  words,  and  not  a  stiver !  This  threw  a  new  light 
over  the  character  of  Innes  to  the  inexperienced  youth. 
Psalmanazar  sagaciously  now  turned  all  his  attention  to  some 
Dutch  ministers  ;  Innes  grew  jealous  lest  they  should  pluck 
the  bird  which  he  had  already  in  his  net.  He  resolved  to 
baptize  the  impostor — which  only  the  more  convinced  Psal- 
manazar that  Innes  was  one  himself ;  for  before  this  time 
Innes  had  practised  a  stratagem  on  him,  which  had  clearly 
shown  what  sort  of  a  man  his  Formosan  was. 

This  stratagem  was  this :  he  made  him  translate  a  passage 
in  Cicero,  of  some  length,  into  his  pretended  language,  and 
give  it  him  in  writing ;  this  was  easily  done  by  Psalmanazar's 
facility  of  inventing  characters.  After  Innes  had  made  him 
construe  it,  he  desired  to  have  another  version  of  it  on  an- 
other paper.  The  proposal,  and  the  arch  manner  of  making 
it,  threw  our  impostor  into  the  most  visible  confusion.  He 
had  had  but  a  short  time  to  invent  the  first  paper,  less  to 
recollect  it ;  so  that  in  the  second  transcript  not  above  half 
the  words  were  to  be  found  which  existed  in  the  first.  Innes 
assumed  a  solemn  air,  and  Psalmanazar  was  on  the  point  of 
throwing  himself  on  his  mercy,  but  Innes  did  not  wish  to 
unmask  the  impostor ;  he  was  rather  desirous  of  fitting  the 
mask  closer  to  his  face.  Psalmanazar,  in  this  hard  trial,  had 
given  evidence  of  uncommon  facility,  combined  with  a  singu- 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


217 


lar  memory.  Innes  cleared  his  brow,  smiled  with  a  friendly 
look,  and  only  hinted  in  a  distant  manner,  that  he  ought  to 
be  careful  to  be  better  provided  for  the  future !  An  advice 
which  Psalmanazar  afterwards  bore  in  mind,  and  at  length 
produced  the  forgery  of  an  entire  new  language ;  and  which, 
he  remarkably  observes,  "  by  what  I  have  tried  since  I  came 
into  England,  I  cannot  say  but  I  could  have  compassed  it 
with  less  difficulty  than  can  be  conceived  had  I  applied  closely 
to  it."  When  a  version  of  the  catechism  was  made  into  the 
pretended  Formosan  language,  which  was  submitted  to  the 
judgment  of  the  first  scholars,  it  appeared  to  them  gram- 
matical, and  was  pronounced  to  be  a  real  language,  from  the 
circumstance  that  it  resembled  no  other !  and  they  could  not 
conceive  that  a  stripling  could  be  the  inventor  of  a  language. 
If  the  reader  is  curious  to  examine  this  extraordinary  im- 
posture, I  refer  him  to  that  literary  curiosity,  "An  Historical 
and  Geographical  Description  of  Formosa,  with  Accounts  of 
the  Religion,  Customs  and  Manners  of  the  Inhabitants,  by 
George  Psalmanazar,  a  Native  of  the  said  Isle,"  1704;  with 
numerous  plates,  wretched  inventions  !  of  their  dress !  relig- 
ious ceremonies !  their  tabernacle  and  altars  to  the  sun,  the 
moon,  and  the  ten  stars !  their  architecture !  the  viceroy's 
castle !  a  temple !  a  city  house !  a  countryman's  house  !  and 
the  Formosan  alphabet !  In  his  conferences  before  the 
Royal  Society  with  a  Jesuit  just  returned  from  China,  the 
Jesuit  had  certain  strong  suspicions  that  our  hero  was  an 
impostor.  The  good  father  remained  obstinate  in  his  own 
conviction,  but  could  not  satisfactorily  communicate  it  to 
others  ;  and  Psalmanazar,  after  politely  asking  pardon  for 
the  expression,  complains  of  the  Jesuit  that  "  he  lied  most 
impudently"  mentitur  impudentissime  !  Dr.  Mead  absurdly 
insisted  Psalmanazar  was  a  Dutchman  or  a  German  ;  some 
thought  him  a  Jesuit  in  disguise,  a  tool  of  the  non-jurors ; 
the  catholics  thought  him  bribed  by  the  protestants  to  expose 
their  church ;  the  presbyterians  that  he  was  paid  to  explode 
their  doctrine,  and  cry  up  episcopacy !  This  fabulous  history 


218 


LITERARY  FORGERIES. 


of  Formosa  seems  to  have  been  projected  by  his  artful 
prompter  Lines,  who  put  Varenius  into  Psalmanazar's 
hands  to  assist  him;  trumpeted  forth  in  the  domestic  and 
foreign  papers  an  account  of  this  converted  Formosan ;  mad- 
dened the  booksellers  to  hurry  the  author,  who  was  scarcely 
allowed  two  months  to  produce  this  extraordinary  volume ; 
and  as  the  former  accounts  which  the  public  possessed  of 
this  island  were  full  of  monstrous  absurdities  and  contradic- 
tions, these  assisted  the  present  imposture.  Our  forger 
resolved  not  to  describe  new  and  surprising  things  as  they 
had  done,  but  rather  studied  to  clash  with  them,  probably 
that  he  might  have  an  opportunity  of  pretending  to  correct 
them.  The  first  edition  was  immediately  sold;  the  world 
was  more  divided  than  ever  in  opinion ;  in  a  second  edition 
he  prefixed  a  vindication  ! — the  unhappy  forger  got  about 
twenty  guineas  for  an  imposture,  whose  delusion  spread 
far  and  wide !  Some  years  afterwards  Psalmanazar  was 
engaged  in  a  minor  imposture ;  one  man  had  persuaded  him 
to  father  a  white  composition  called  the  Formosan  japan  f 
which  was  to  be  sold  at  a  high  price  !  It  was  curious  for  its 
whiteness,  but  it  had  its  faults.  The  project  failed,  and 
Psalmanazar  considered  the  miscarriage  of  the  white  For- 
mosan japan  as  a  providential  warning  to  repent  of  all  his 
impostures  of  Formosa ! 

Among  these  literary  forgeries  may  be  classed  several 
ingenious  ones  fabricated  for  a  political  purpose.  We  had 
certainly  numerous  ones  during  our  civil  wars  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  First.  This  is  not  the  place  to  continue  the 
controversy  respecting  the  mysterious  Eikon  Basilike,  which 
has  been  ranked  among  them,  from  the  ambiguous  claim  of 
Gauden.  A  recent  writer  who  would  probably  incline  not 
to  leave  the  monarch,  were  he  living,  not  only  his  head  but 
the  little  fame  he  might  obtain  by  the  "  Verses  "  said  to  be 
written  by  him  at  Carisbrooke  Castle,  would  deprive  him 
also  of  these.  Henderson's  death-bed  recantation  is  also 
reckoned  among  them ;  and  we  have  a  large  collection  of 


OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS. 


219 


"Letters  of  Sir  Henry  Martin  to  his  Lady  of  Delight," 
which  were  the  satirical  effusions  of  a  wit  of  that  day,  but  by 
the  price  they  have  obtained,  are  probably  considered  as 
genuine  ones,  and  exhibit  an  amusing  picture  of  his  loose 
rambling  life.*  There  is  a  ludicrous  speech  of  the  strange 
Earl  of  Pembroke,  which  was  forged  by  the  inimitable 
Butler;  and  Sir  John  Birkenhead,  a  great  humourist  and 
wit,  had  a  busy  pen  in  these  spurious  letters  and  speeches. 


OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS. 

An  honest  historian  at  times  will  have  to  inflict  severe 
strokes  on  his  favourites.  This  has  fallen  to  my  lot,  for  in 
the  course  of  my  researches,  I  have  to  record  that  we  have 
both  forgers  and  purloiners,  as  well  as  other  more  obvious 
impostors,  in  the  republic  of  letters  !  The  present  article 
descends  to  relate  anecdotes  of  some  contrivances  to  possess 
our  literary  curiosities  by  other  means  than  by  purchase; 
and  the  only  apology  which  can  be  alleged  for  the  splendida 
peccata,  as  St.  Austin  calls  the  virtues  of  the  heathen,  of  the 
present  innocent  criminals,  is  their  excessive  passion  for  lit- 
erature, and  otherwise  the  respectability  of  their  names. 
According  to  Grose's  "  Classical  Dictionary  of  the  Vulgar 
Tongue,"  we  have  had  celebrated  collectors,  both  in  the 
learned  and  vulgar  idioms.  But  one  of  them,  who  had  some 
reasons  too  to  be  tender  on  this  point,  distinguished  this  mode 
of  completing  his  collections,  not  by  book-stealing,  but  by 
book-coveting.  On  some  occasions,  in  mercy,  we  must  allow 
of  softening  names.  Were  not  the  Spartans  allowed  to  steal 
from  one  another,  and  the  bunglers  only  punished  ? 

It  is  said  that  Pinelli  made  occasional  additions  to  his  lit- 
erary treasures  sometimes  by  his  skill  in  an  art  which  lay 

*  Since  this  was  published  I  have  discovered  that  Harry  Martin's  Let- 
ters are  not  forgeries,  but  I  cannot  immediately  recover  my  authority. 


220 


OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS. 


much  more  in  the  hand  than  in  the  head  :  however,  as  Pinelli 
never  stirred  out  of  his  native  city  but  once  in  his  lifetime, 
when  the  plague  drove  him  from  home,  his  field  of  action  was* 
so  restricted,  that  we  can  hardly  conclude  that  he  could  have 
been  so  great  an  enterpriser  in  this  way.  No  one  can  have 
lost  their  character  by  this  sort  of  exercise  in  a  confined 
circle,  and  be  allowed  to  prosper !  A  light-fingered  Mercury 
would  hardly  haunt  the  same  spot :  however,  this  is  as  it  may 
be  !  It  is  probable  that  we  owe  to  this  species  of  accumula- 
tion many  precious  manuscripts  in  the  Cottonian  collection. 
It  appears  by  the  manuscript  note-book  of  Sir  Nicholas 
Hyde,  chief  justice  of  the  King's  Bench  from  the  second  to 
the  seventh  year  of  Charles  the  First,  that  Sir  Robert  Cotton 
had  in  his  library,  records,  evidences,  leger-books,  original 
letters,  and  other  state  papers,  belonging  to  the  king ;  for  the 
attorney-general  of  that  time,  to  prove  this,  showed  a  copy 
of  the  pardon  which  Sir  Robert  had  obtained  from  King 
James  for  embezzling  records,  &c* 

Gough  has  more  than  insinuated  that  Rawlinson  and  his 
friend  Umfreville  "lie  under  very  strong  suspicions;"  and 
he  asserts  that  the  collector  of  the  Wilton  treasures  made  as 
free  as  Dr.  Willis  with  his  friend's  coins.  But  he  has  also 
put  forth  a  declaration  relating  to  Bishop  More,  the  famous 
collector,  that  "  the  bishop  collected  his  library  by  plundering 
those  of  the  clergy  in  his  diocese ;  some  he  paid  with  sermons 
or  more  modern  books  ;  others,  less  civilly,  only  with  a  quid 
illiterati  cum  libris  ?  "  This  plundering  then  consisted  rather 
of  cajoling  others  out  of  what  they  knew  not  how  to  value  ; 
and  this  is  an  advantage  which  every  skilful  lover  of  books 
must  enjoy  over  those  whose  apprenticeship  has  not  expired. 
I  have  myself  been  plundered  by  a  very  dear  friend  of  some 
such  literary  curiosities,  in  the  days  of  my  innocence  and  of 
his  precocity  of  knowledge.  However,  it  does  appear  that 
Bishop  More  did  actually  lay  violent  hands  in  a  snug  corner 
on  some  irresistible  little  charmer ;  which  we  gather  from  a 
*  Lansdowne  MSS.  888,  in  the  former  printed  catalogue,  art.  79. 


OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS. 


221 


precaution  adopted  by  a  friend  of  the  bishop,  who  one  day 
was  found  busy  in  hiding  his  rarest  hooks,  and  locking  up  as 
many  as  he  could.  On  being  asked  the  reason  of  this  odd 
occupation,  the  bibliopolist  ingenuously  replied,  "  The  Bishop 
of  Ely  dines  with  me  to-day."  This  fact  is  quite  clear,  and 
here  is  another  as  indisputable.  Sir  Robert  Saville  writing 
to  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  appointing  an  interview  with  the 
founder  of  the  Bodleian  Library,  cautions  Sir  Robert,  that 
"  If  he  held  any  book  so  dear  as  that  he  would  be  loath  to 
lose  it,  he  should  not  let  Sir  Thomas  out  of  his  sight,  but  set 
'  the  boke '  aside  beforehand."  A  surprise  and  detection  of 
this  nature  has  been  revealed  in  a  piece  of  secret  history  by 
Amelot  de  la  Houssaie,  which  terminated  in  very  important 
political  consequences.  He  assures  us  that  the  personal 
dislike  which  Pope  Innocent  X.  bore  to  the  French  had 
originated  in  his  youth,  when  cardinal,  from  having  been  de- 
tected in  the  library  of  an  eminent  French  collector,  of  having 
purloined  a  most  rare  volume.  The  delirium  of  a  collector's 
rage  overcame  even  French  politesse ;  the  Frenchman  not 
only  openly  accused  his  illustrious  culprit,  but  was  resolved 
that  he  should  not  quit  the  library  without  replacing  the  pre- 
cious volume — from  accusation  and  denial  both  resolved  to  try 
their  strength  :  but  in  this  literary  wrestling-match  the  book 
dropped  out  of  the  cardinal's  robes  ! — and  from  that  day  he 
hated  the  French — at  least  their  more  curious  collectors  ! 

Even  an  author  on  his  dying  bed,  at  those  awful  moments, 
should  a  collector  be  by  his  side,  may  not  be  considered  secure 
from  his  too  curious  hands.  Sir  William  Dugdale  possessed 
the  minutes  of  King  James's  life,  written  by  Camden,  till 
within  a  fortnight  of  his  death  ;  as  also  Camden's  own  life, 
which  he  had  from  Hacket,  the  author  of  the  folio  life  of 
Bishop  Williams  :  who,  adds  Aubrey,  "  did  filch  it  from  Mr. 
Camden,  as  he  lay  a  dying  ! "  He  afterwards  corrects  his 
information,  by  the  name  of  Dr.  Thorndyke,  which,  however, 
equally  answers  our  purpose,  to  prove  that  even  dying  authors 
may  dread  such  collectors  ! 


222 


OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS. 


The  medallists  have,  I  suspect,  been  more  predatory  than 
these  subtracters  of  our  literary  treasures ;  not  only  from  the 
facility  of  their  conveyance,  but  from  a  peculiar  contrivance 
which  of  all  those  things  which  admit  of  being  secretly  pur- 
loined, can  only  be  practised  in  this  department — for  they  can 
steal  and  no  human  hand  can  search  them  with  any  possi- 
bility of  detection  ;  they  can  pick  a  cabinet  and  swallow  the 
curious  things,  and  transport  them  with  perfect  safety,  to  be 
digested  at  their  leisure.  An  adventure  of  this  kind  hap- 
pened to  Baron  Stosch,  the  famous  antiquary.  It  was  in 
looking  over  the  gems  of  the  royal  cabinet  of  medals,  that 
the  keeper  perceived  the  loss  of  one  ;  his  place,  his  pension, 
and  his  reputation,  were  at  stake;  and  he  insisted  that  Baron 
Stosch  should  be  most  minutely  examined ;  in  this  dilemma, 
forced  to  confession,  this  erudite  collector  assured  the  keeper 
of  the  royal  cabinet,  that  the  strictest  search  would  not  avail : 
"  Alas,  sir !  I  have  it  here  within,"  he  said,  pointing  to  his 
breast — an  emetic  was  suggested  by  the  learned  practitioner 
himself,  probably  from  some  former  experiment.  This  was 
not  the  first  time  that  such  a  natural  cabinet  had  been  in- 
vented ;  the  antiquary  Vaillant,  when  attacked  at  sea  by  an 
Algerine,  zealously  swallowed  a  whole  series  of  Syrian  kings ; 
when  he  landed  at  Lyons,  groaning  with  his  concealed  treas- 
ure, he  hastened  to  his  friend,  his  physician,  and  his  brother 
antiquary  Dufour, — who  at  first  was  only  anxious  to  inquire 
of  his  patient,  whether  the  medals  were  of  the  higher  empire? 
Vaillant  showed  two  or  three,  of  which  nature  had  kindly 
relieved  him.  A  collection  of  medals  was  left  to  the  city  of 
Exeter,  and  the  donor  accompanied  the  bequest  by  a  clause 
in  his  will,  that  should  a  certain  antiquary,  his  old  friend  and 
rival,  be  desirous  of  examining  the  coins,  he  should  be  watched 
by  two  persons,  one  on  each  side.  La  Croze  informs  us  in 
his  life,  that  the  learned  Charles  Patin,  who  has  written  a 
work  on  medals,  was  one  of  the  present  race  of  collectors  : 
Patin  offered  the  curators  of  the  public  library  at  Basle  to 
draw  up  a  catalogue  of  the  cabinet  of  Amerback  there  pre- 


OF  LITERARY  FILCHERS. 


223 


served,  containing  a  good  number  of  medals  ;  but  they  would 
have  been  more  numerous,  had  the  catalogue-writer  not  dimin- 
ished both  them  and  his  labour,  by  sequestrating  some  of  the 
most  rare,  which  was  not  discovered  till  this  plunderer  of 
antiquity  was  far  out  of  their  reach. 

When  Gough  touched  on  this  odd  subject  in  the  first  edi- 
tion of  his  "  British  Topography,"  "  An  Academic,"  in  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine  for  August,  1772,  insinuated  that  this 
charge  of  literary  pilfering  was  only  a  jocular  one ;  on  which 
Gough,  in  his  second  edition,  observed  that  this  was  not  the 
case,  and  that  "one  might  point  out  enough  light-Jingered 
antiquaries  in  the  present  age,  to  render  such  a  charge 
extremely  probable  against  earlier  ones."  The  most  extra- 
ordinary part  of  this  slight  history  is,  that  our  public  de- 
nouncer some  time  after  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  these 
"  light-fingered  antiquaries  : "  the  deed  itself,  however,  was 
more  singular  than  disgraceful.  At  the  disinterment  of  the 
remains  of  Edward  the  First,  around  which  thirty  years  ago 
assembled  our  most  erudite  antiquaries,  Gough  was  observed, 
as  Steevens  used  to  relate,  in  a  wrapping  great-coat  of  un- 
usual dimensions  ;  that  witty  and  malicious  "  Puck,"  so  capa- 
ble himself  of  inventing  mischief,  easily  suspected  others,  and 
divided  his  glance  as  much  on  the  living  piece  of  antiquity  as 
on  the  elder.  In  the  act  of  closing  up  the  relics  of  royalty, 
there  was  found  wanting  an  entire  fore-finger  of  Edward  the 
First ;  and  as  the  body  was  perfect  when  opened,  a  murmur 
of  dissatisfaction  was  spreading,  when  "  Puck  "  directed  their 
attention  to  the  great  antiquary  in  the  watchman's  great-coat 
— from  whence — too  surely  was  extracted  Edward  the  First's 
great  fore-finger  ! — so  that  "  the  light-fingered  antiquary  "  was 
recognized  ten  years  after  he  denounced  the  race,  when  he 
came  to  "  try  his  hand."  * 

*  It  is  probable  that  this  story  of  Gough's  pocketing  the  fore-finger  of 
Edward  the  First,  was  one  of  the  malicious  inventions  of  George  Steevens, 
after  he  discovered  that  the  antiquary  was  among  the  few  admitted  to  the 
untombing  of  the  royal  corpse ;  Steevens  himself  was  not  there !  Sylvanua 


224 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 

The  history  of  Lord  Bacon  would  be  that  of  the  intellec- 
tual faculties,  and  a  theme  so  worthy  of  the  philosophical 
biographer  remains  yet  to  be  written.  The  personal  narra- 
tive of  this  master-genius  or  inventor  must  forever  be 
separated  from  the  scala  intellectus  he  was  perpetually 
ascending :  and  the  domestic  history  of  this  creative  mind 
must  be  consigned  to  the  most  humiliating  chapter  in  the 
volume  of  human  life ;  a  chapter  already  sufficiently  en- 
larged, and  which  has  irrefutably  proved  how  the  greatest 
minds  are  not  freed  from  the  infirmities  of  the  most  vulgar. 

The  parent  of  our  philosophy  is  now  to  be  considered  in 
a  new  light,  one  which  others  do  not  appear  to  have  observed. 
My  researches  into  contemporary  notices  of  Bacon  have 
often  convinced  me  that  his  philosophical  works,  in  his  own 
days  and  among  his  own  countrymen,  were  not  only  not 
comprehended,  but  often  ridiculed,  and  sometimes  reprobated ; 
that  they  were  the  occasion  of  many  slights  and  mortifications 
which  this  depreciated  man  endured  ;  but  that  from  a  very 
early  period  in  his  life,  to  that  last  record  of  his  feelings 
which  appears  in  his  will,  this  "  servant  of  posterity,"  as  he 
prophetically  called  himself,  sustained  his  mighty  spirit  with 
the  confidence  of  his  own  posthumous  greatness.  Bacon  cast 
his  views  through  the  maturity  of  ages,  and  perhaps  amidst 
the  skeptics  and  the  rejectors  of  his  plans,  may  have  felt  at 

Urban  (the  late  respected  John  Nichols)  who  must  know  much  more  than 
he  cares  to  record  of  "  Puck," — has,  howevei*,  given  the  following  "  secret 
history"  of  what  he  calls  "  ungentlemanly  and  unwarrantable  attacks" 
on  Gough,  by  Steevens.  It  seems  that  Steevens  was  a  collector  of  the 
works  of  Hogarth,  and  while  engaged  in  forming  his  collection,  wrote  an 
abrupt  letter  to  Gough  to  obtain  from  him  some  early  impressions,  by  pur- 
chase or  exchange.  Gough  resented  the  manner  of  his  address  by  a  rough 
refusal,  for  it  is  admitted  to  have  been  "  a  peremptory  one."  Thus  arose 
the  implacable  vengeance  of  Steevens,  who  used  to  boast  that  all  the  mis- 
chievous tricks  he  played  on  the  grave  antiquary,  who  was  rarely  over- 
kind  to  any  one,  was  but  a  pleasant  kind  of  revenge. 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


225 


times  all  that  idolatry  of  fame,  which  has  now  consecrated 
his  philosophical  works. 

At  college,  Bacon  discovered  how  "  that  scrap  of  Grecian 
knowledge,  the  peripatetic  philosophy,"  and  the  scholastic 
babble,  could  not  serve  the  ends  and  purposes  of  knowledge ; 
that  syllogisms  were  not  thing*,  and  that  a  new  logic  might 
teach  us  to  invent  and  judge  by  induction.  He  found  that 
theories  were  to  be  built  upon  experiments.  When  a  young 
man,  abroad,  he  began  to  make  those  observations  on  nature, 
which  afterwards  led  on  to  the  foundations  of  the  new 
philosophy.  At  sixteen,  he  philosophized;  at  twenty-six,  he 
had  framed  his  system  into  some  form  ;  and  after  forty  years 
of  continued  labours,  unfinished  to  his  last  hour,  he  left 
behind  him  sufficient  to  found  the  great  philosophical  refor- 
mation. 

On  his  entrance  into  active  life,  study  was  not  however  his 
prime  object.  With  his  fortune  to  make,  his  court  connec- 
tions and  his  father's  example  opened  a  path  for  ambition. 
He  chose  the  practice  of  common  law  as  his  means,  while 
his  inclinations  were  looking  upwards  to  political  affairs  as 
his  end.  A  passion  for  study  however  had  strongly  marked 
him ;  he  had  read  much  more  than  was  required  in  his  pro- 
fessional character,  and  this  circumstance  excited  the  mean 
jealousies  of  the  minister  Cecil,  and  the  attorney-general 
Coke.  Both  were  mere  practical  men  of  business,  whose 
narrow  conceptions  and  whose  stubborn  habits  assume,  that 
whenever  a  man  acquires  much  knowledge  foreign  to  his 
profession,  he  will  know  less  of  professional  knowledge  than 
he  ought.  These  men  of  strong  minds,  yet  limited  capaci- 
ties, hold  in  contempt  all  studies  alien  to  their  habits. 

Bacon  early  aspired  to  the  situation  of  solicitor-general ; 
the  court  of  Elizabeth  was  divided  into  factions ;  Bacon 
adopted  the  interests  of  the  generous  Essex,  which  were  in- 
imical to  the  party  of  Cecil.  The  queen,  from  his  boyhood, 
was  delighted  by  conversing  with  her  "  young  lord-keeper," 
as  she  early  distinguished  the  precocious  gravity  and  the  in- 

VOL.  IV.  15 


226 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


genious  turn  of  mind  of  the  future  philosopher.  It  was  un- 
questionably to  attract  her  favour,  that  Bacon  presented  to 
the  queen  his  "  Maxims  and  Elements  of  the  Common  Law," 
not  published  till  after  his  death.  Elizabeth  suffered  her 
minister  to  form  her  opinions  on  the  legal  character  of  Bacon. 
It  was  alleged  that  Bacon  was  addicted  to  more  general 
pursuits  than  law,  and  the  miscellaneous  books  which  he  was 
known  to  have  read  confirmed  the  accusation.  This  was 
urged  as  a  reason  why  the  post  of  solicitor-general  should 
not  be  conferred  on  a  man  of  speculation,  more  likely  to  dis- 
tract than  to  direct  her  affairs.  Elizabeth,  in  the  height  of 
that  political  prudence  which  marked  her  character,  was 
swayed  by  the  vulgar  notion  of  Cecil,  and  believed  that 
Bacon,  who  afterwards  filled  the  situation  both  of  solicitor- 
general  and  lord  chancellor,  was  "a  man  rather  of  show 
than  of  depth."  We  have  recently  been  told  by  a  great 
lawyer,  that  "  Bacon  was  a  master." 

On  the  accession  of  James  the  First,  when  Bacon  still 
found  the  same  party  obstructing  his  political  advancement, 
he  appears,  in  some  momentary  fit  of  disgust,  to  have  medi- 
tated on  a  retreat  into  a  foreign  country;  a  circumstance 
which  has  happened  to  several  of  our  men  of  genius,  during 
a  fever  of  solitary  indignation.  He  was  for  some  time  thrown 
out  of  the  sunshine  of  life,  but  he  found  its  shade  more  fitted 
for  contemplation ;  and,  unquestionably,  philosophy  was 
benefited  by  his  solitude  at  Gray's  Inn.  His  hand  was 
always  on  his  work,  and  better  thoughts  will  find  an  easy 
entrance  into  the  mind  of  those  who  feed  on  their  thoughts, 
and  live  amidst  their  reveries.  In  a  letter  on  this  occasion, 
he  writes,  "  My  ambition  now  I  shall  only  put  upon  my  pen, 
whereby  I  shall  be  able  to  maintain  memory  and  merit,  of 
the  times  succeeding."  And  many  years  after,  when  he 
had  finally  quitted  public  life,  he  told  the  king,  "  I  would  live 
to  study,  and  not  study  to  live :  yet  I  am  prepared  for  date 
obolum  Belisario  ;  and,  I  that  have  borne  a  bag,  can  bear  a 
wallet." 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


227 


Ever  were  the  times  succeeding  in  his  mind.  In  that 
delightful  Latin  letter  to  Father  Fulgentio,  where,  with  the 
simplicity  of  true  grandeur,  he  takes  a  view  of  all  his  works, 
and  in  which  he  describes  himself  as  "  one  who  served  pos- 
terity," in  communicating  his  past  and  his  future  designs,  he 
adds  that  "  they  require  some  ages  for  the  ripening  of  them." 
There,  while  he  despairs  of  finishing  what  was  intended  for 
the  sixth  part  of  his  Instauration,  how  nobly  he  despairs ! 
"  Of  the  perfecting  this  I  have  cast  away  all  hopes ;  but  in 
future  ages,  perhaps,  the  design  may  bud  again."  And  he 
concludes  by  avowing,  that  the  zeal  and  constancy  of  his 
mind  in  the  great  design,  after  so  many  years,  had  never 
become  cold  and  indifferent.  He  remembers  how,  forty 
years  ago,  he  had  composed  a  juvenile  work  about  those 
things,  which  with  confidence,  but  with  too  pompous  a  title, 
he  had  called  Temporis  Partus  Maximus ;  the  great  birth 
of  time !  Besides  the  public  dedication  of  his  Novum 
Organum  to  James  the  First,  he  accompanied  it  with  a 
private  letter.  He  wishes  the  king's  favour  to  the  work, 
which  he  accounts  as  much  as  a  hundred  years'  time  ;  for  he 
adds,  "  I  am  persuaded  the  work  will  gain  upon  men's  minds 
in  ages." 

In  his  last  will  appears  his  remarkable  legacy  of  fame. 
"  My  name  and  memory  I  leave  to  foreign  nations,  and  to 
mine  own  countrymen,  after  some  time  be  past  over." 
Time  seemed  always  personated  in  the  imagination  of  our 
philosopher,  and  with  time  he  wrestled  with  a  consciousness 
of  triumph. 

I  shall  now  bring  forward  sufficient  evidence  to  prove  how 
little  Bacon  was  understood,  and  how  much  he  was  even 
despised,  in  his  philosophical  character. 

In  those  prescient  views  by  which  the  genius  of  Verulam 
has  often  anticipated  the  institutions  and  the  discoveries  of 
succeeding  times,  there  was  one  important  object  which  even 
his  foresight  does  not  appear  to  have  contemplated.  Lord 
Bacon  did  not  foresee  that  the  English  language  would  one 


228 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


day  be  capable  of  embalming  all  that  philosophy  can  discover, 
or  poetry  can  invent ;  that  his  country  would  at  length  pos- 
sess a  national  literature  of  its  own,  and  that  it  would  exult 
in  classical  compositions  which  might  be  appreciated  with  the 
finest  models  of  antiquity.  His.  taste  was  far  unequal  to  his 
invention.  So  little  did  he  esteem  the  language  of  his  coun- 
try, that  his  favourite  works  are  composed  in  Latin ;  and  he 
was  anxious  to  have  what  he  had  written  in  English  pre- 
served in  that"  universal  language  which  may  last  as  long  as 
books  last."  It  would  have  surprised  Bacon  to  have  been 
told,  that  the  most  learned  men  in  Europe  have  studied  Eng- 
lish authors  to  learn  to  think  and  to  write.  Our  philosopher 
was  surely  somewhat  mortified,  when  in  his  dedication  of  the 
Essays  he  observed,  that  "  of  all  my  other  works  my  Essays 
have  been  most  current ;  for  that,  as  it  seems,  they  come 
home  to  men's  business  and  bosoms."  It  is  too  much  to  hope 
to  find  in  a  vast  and  profound  inventor  a  writer  also  who  be- 
stows immortality  on  his  language.  The  English  language 
is  the  only  object  in  his  great  survey  of  art  and  of  nature, 
which  owes  nothing  of  its  excellence  to  the  genius  of  Bacon. 

He  had  reason  indeed  to  be  mortified  at  the  reception  of 
his  philosophical  works ;  and  Dr.  Rawley,  even  some  years 
after  the  death  of  his  illustrious  master,  had  occasion  to  ob- 
serve, that "  His  fame  is  greater  and  sounds  louder  in  foreign 
parts  abroad  than  at  home  in  his  own  nation  ;  thereby  veri- 
fying that  divine  sentence,  a  prophet  is  not  without  honour, 
save  in  his  own  country  and  in  his  own  house."  Even  the 
men  of  genius,  who  ought  to  have  comprehended  this  new 
source  of  knowledge  thus  opened  to  them,  reluctantly  entered 
into  it ;  so  repugnant  are  we  suddenly  to  give  up  ancient 
errors  which  time  and  habit  have  made  a  part  of  ourselves. 
Harvey,  who  himself  experienced  the  sluggish  obstinacy  of 
the  learned,  which  repelled  a  great  but  a  novel  discovery, 
could  however  in  his  turn  deride  the  amazing  novelty  of 
Bacon's  Novum  Organum.  Harvey  said  to  Aubrey,  that 
"  Bacon  was  no  great  philosopher ;  he  writes  philosophy  like 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


229 


a  lord  chancellor."  It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  Bacon's 
philosophical  writings  have  been  much  overrated. — His  ex 
perimental  philosophy  from  the  era  in  which  they  were  pro- 
duced must  be  necessarily  defective  :  the  time  he  gave  to 
them  could  only  have  been  had  at  spare  hours ;  but  like  the 
great  prophet  on  the  mount,  Bacon  was  doomed  to  view  the 
land  afar,  which  he  himself  could  never  enter. 

Bacon  found  but  small  encouragement  for  his  new  learning 
among  the  most  eminent  scholars,  to  whom  he  submitted  his 
early  discoveries.  A  very  copious  letter  by  Sir  Thomas 
Bodley  on  Bacon's  desiring  him  to  return  the  manuscript  of 
the  Cogitata  et  Visa,  some  portion  of  the  Novum  Organum, 
has  come  down  to  us ;  it  is  replete  with  objections  to  the  new 
philosophy.  "  I  am  one  of  that  crew,"  says  Sir  Thomas, 
"  that  say  we  possess  a  far  greater  holdfast  of  certainty  in 
the  sciences  than  you  will  seem  to  acknowledge."  He  gives 
a  hint  too  that  Solomon  complained  "  of  the  infinite  making 
of  books  in  his  time  ; "  that  all  Bacon  delivers  is  only  "  by 
averment  without  other  force  of  argument,  to  disclaim  all  our 
axioms,  maxims,  &c.  left  by  tradition  from  our  elders  unto 
us,  which  have  passed  all  probations  of  the  sharpest  wits 
that  ever  were ; "  and  he  concludes,  that  the  end  of  all  Ba- 
con's philosophy,  by  "  a  fresh  creating  new  principles  of 
sciences,  would  be  to  be  dispossessed  of  the  learning  we 
have ; "  and  he  fears  that  it  would  require  as  many  ages  as 
have  marched  before  us  that  knowledge  should  be  perfectly 
achieved.  Bodley  truly  compares  himself  to  "  the  carrier's 
horse,  which  cannot  blanch  the  beaten  way  in  which  I  was 
trained."  * 

Bacon  did  not  lose  heart  by  the  timidity  of  the  "  carrier's 
horse : "  a  smart  vivacious  note  in  return  shows  his  quick  ap- 
prehension. 

"  As  I  am  going  to  my  house  in  the  country,  I  shall  want 
my  papers,  which  I  beg  you  therefore  to  return.    You  are 
slothful,  and  you  help  me  nothing,  so  that  I  am  half  in  con- 
*  This  letter  may  be  found  in  Reliquiae  Bodleiarue,  p.  369. 


230 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


ceit  you  affect  not  the  argument ;  for  myself  I  know  well  you 
love  and  affect.  I  can  say  no  more,  but  non  canimus  surdis, 
respondent  omnia  sylvce.  If  you  be  not  of  the  lodgings 
chalked  up,  whereof  I  speak  in  my  preface,  I  am  but  to  pass 
by  your  door.  But  if  I  had  you  a  fortnight  at  Gorhambury, 
I  would  make  you  tell  another  tale ;  or  else  I  would  add  a 
cogitation  against  libraries,  and  be  revenged  on  you  that 
way." 

A  keen  but  playful  retort  of  a  great  author  too  conscious 
of  his  own  views  to  be  angry  with  his  critic  !  The  singular 
phrase  of  the  lodgings  chalked  up  is  a  sarcasm  explained  by 
this  passage  in  "  The  Advancement  of  Learning."  "  As 
Alexander  Borgia  was  wont  to  say  of  the  expedition  of  the 
French  for  Naples,  that  they  came  with  chalk  in  their  hands 
to  mark  up  their  lodgings,  and  not  with  weapons  to  fight ;  so 
I  like  better  that  entry  of  truth  that  cometh  peaceably  with 
chalk  to  mark  up  those  minds  which  are  capable  to  lodge  and 
harbour  it,  than  that  which  cometh  with  pugnacity  and  con- 
tention." *  The  threatened  agitation  against  libraries  must 
have  caused  Bodley's  cheek  to  tingle. 

Let  us  now  turn  from  the  scholastic  to  the  men  of  the 
world,  and  we  shall  see  what  sort  of  notion  these  critics  en- 
tertained of  the  philosophy  of  Bacon.  Chamberlain  writes, 
"  This  week  the  lord  chancellor  hath  set  forth  his  new  work, 
called  Instauratio  Magna,  or  a  kind  of  Novum  Organum  of 
all  philosophy.  In  sending  it  to  the  king,  he  wrote  that  he 
wished  his  majesty  might  be  so  long  in  reading  it  as  he  hath 
been  in  composing  and  polishing  it,  which  is  well  near  thirty 
years.  I  have  read  no  more  than  the  bare  title,  and  am  not 
greatly  encouraged  by  Mr.  Cuffe's  judgment,!  wno  having 
long  since  perused  it,  gave  this  censure,  that  "  a  fool  could 

#  I  have  been  favoured  with  this  apt  illustration  by  an  anonymous  com- 
municator, who  dates  from  the  "  London  University."  I  request  him  to 
accept  my  grateful  acknowledgments. 

t  Henry  Cuffe,  secretary  to  Robert,  Earl  of  Essex,  and  executed,  being 
concerned  in  his  treason.  A  man  noted  for  his  classical  acquirements  and 
his  genius,  who  perished  early  in  life. 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


231 


not  have  written  such  a  work,  and  a  wise  man  would  not.'' 
A  month  or  two  afterwards  we  find  that  "  the  king  cannot 
forbear  sometimes  in  reading  the  lord  chancellor's  last  book 
to  say,  that  it  is  like  the  peace  of  God,  that  surpasseth  all  un- 
derstanding." 

Two  years  afterwards  the  same  letter-writer  proceeds  with 
another  literary  paragraph  about  Bacon.  "  This  lord  busies 
himself  altogether  about  books,  and  hath  set  out  two  lately, 
Historia  Ventorum,  and  De  Vita  et  Morte,  with  promise  of 
more.  I  have  yet  seen  neither  of  them,  because  I  have  not 
leisure  ;  but  if  the  life  of  Henry  the  Eighth  (the  Seventh), 
which  they  say  he  is  about,  might  come  out  after  his  own 
manner  (meaning  his  Moral  Essays),  I  should  find  time  and 
means  enough  to  read  it."  When  this  history  made  its  ap- 
pearance, the  same  writer  observes,  "  My  Lord  Verulam's 
history  of  Henry  the  Seventh  is  come  forth  ;  I  have  not 
read  much  of  it,  but  they  say  it  is  a  very  pretty  book."  * 

Bacon,  in  his  vast  survey  of  human  knowledge,  included 
even  its  humbler  provinces,  and  condescended  to  form  a  col- 
lection of  apophthegms :  his  lordship  regretted  the  loss  of  a 
collection  made  by  Julius  Cassar,  while  Plutarch  indiscrimi- 
nately drew  much  of  the  dregs.  The  wits,  who  could  not 
always  comprehend  his  plans,  ridiculed  the  sage.  I  shall  now 
quote  a  contemporary  poet,  whose  works,  for  by  their  size 
they  may  assume  that  distinction,  were  never  published.  A 
Dr.  Andrews  wasted  a  sportive  pen  on  fugitive  events ;  but 
though  not  always  deficient  in  humour  and  wit,  such  is  the 
freedom  of  his  writings,  that  they  will  not  often  admit  of 
quotation.  The  following  is  indeed  but  a  strange  pun  on 
Bacon's  title,  derived  from  the  town  of  St.  Alban's  and  his 
collection  of  apophthegms  : — 

ON  LORD  BACON  PUBLISHING  APOPHTHEGMS. 

u  When  learned  Bacon  wrote  Essays, 
He  did  deserve  and  hath  the  praise ; 

*  Chamberlain  adds  the  price  of  this  moderate-sized  folio,  which  was 
six  shillings. 


232 


OF  LORD  BACON  AT  HOME. 


But  now  he  writes  bis  Apophthegms, 

Surely  he  dozes  or  he  dreams ; 

One  said,  St.  Albans  now  is  grown  unable, 

And  is  in  the  high-road  way — to  Dunstable  [i.  e.  Dunce-table], 

To  the  close  of  his  days  were  Lord  Bacon's  philosophical 
pursuits  still  disregarded  and  depreciated  by  ignorance  and 
envy,  in  the  forms  of  friendship  or  rivality.  I  shall  now 
give  a  remarkable  example.  Sir  Edward  Coke  was  a  mere 
great  lawyer,  and,  like  all  such,  had  a  mind  so  walled  in  by 
law-knowledge,  that  in  its  bounded  views  it  shut  out  the  hori- 
zon of  the  intellectual  faculties,  and  the  whole  of  his  philos- 
ophy lay  in  the  statutes.  In  the  library  at  Holkham  there 
must  be  found  a  presentation  copy  of  Lord  Bacon's  Novum 
Organum,  the  Listauratio  Magna,  1620.  It  was  given  to 
Coke,  for  it  bears  the  following  note  on  the  title-page  in  the 
writing  of  Coke : — 

Edw.  Coke,  Ex  dono  authoris. 

Auctori  consilium: 
Instaurare  paras  veterum  documenta  sophorum; 
Instaura  leges,  justitiamque  prius. 

The  verses  not  only  reprove  Bacon  for  going  out  of  his  pro- 
fession, but  must  have  alluded  to  his  character  as  a  preroga- 
tive lawyer,  and  his  corrupt  administration  of  the  chancery. 
The  book  was  published  in  October,  1620,  a  few  months  be- 
fore the  impeachment.  And  so  far  one  may  easily  excuse 
the  causticity  of  Coke ;  but  how  he  really  valued  the  philos- 
ophy of  Bacon  appears  by  this  :  in  this  first  edition  there  is 
a  device  of  a  ship  passing  between  Hercules's  pillars  ;  the 
plus  ultra,  the  proud  exultation  of  our  philosopher.  Over 
this  device  Coke  has  written  a  miserable  distich  in  English, 
which  marks  his  utter  contempt  of  the  philosophical  pursuits 
of  his  illustrious  rival.  This  ship  passing  beyond  the  col- 
umns of  Hercules,  he  sarcastically  conceits  as  "  The  Ship  of 
Fools,"  the  famous  satire  of  the  German  Sebastian  Brandt, 
translated  by  Alexander  Barclay. 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  ELIZABETH.  233 


"  R  deserveth  not  to  be  read  in  schools, 
But  to  be  freighted  in  the  Ship  of  Fools." 

Such  then  was  the  fate  of  Lord  Bacon ;  a  history  not 
written  by  his  biographers,  but  which  may  serve  as  a  com- 
ment on  that  obscure  passage  dropped  from  the  pen  of  his 
chaplain,  and  already  quoted,  that  he  was  more  valued  abroad 
than  at  home. 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  QUEEN 
ELIZABETH. 

It  is  an  extraordinary  circumstance  in  our  history,  that 
the  succession  to  the  English  dominion,  in  two  remarkable 
cases,  was  never  settled  by  the  possessors  of  the  throne 
themselves  during  their  lifetime;  and  that  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  this  mighty  transfer  of  three  kingdoms 
became  the  sole  act  of  their  ministers,  who  considered  the 
succession  merely  as  a  state  expedient.  Two  of  our  most 
able  sovereigns  found  themselves  in  this  predicament :  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  the  Protector  Cromwell !  Cromwell  probably 
had  his  reasons  not  to  name  his  successor  ;  his  positive  elec- 
tion would  have  dissatisfied  the  opposite  parties  of  his  gov- 
ernment, whom  he  only  ruled  while  he  was  able  to  cajole 
them.  He  must  have  been  aware  that  latterly  he  had  need 
of  conciliating  all  parties  to  his  usurpation,  and  was  probably 
as  doubtful  on  his  death-bed  whom  to  appoint  his  successor, 
as  at  any  other  period  of  his  reign.  Ludlow  suspects  that 
Cromwell  was  "  so  discomposed  in  body  or  mind,  that  he 
could  not  attend  to  that  matter ;  and  whether  he  named  any 
one  is  to  me  uncertain."  All  that  we  know  is  the  report  of 
ihe  Secretary  Thurlow  and  his  chaplains,  who,  when  the  pro- 
tector lay  in  his  last  agonies,  suggested  to  him  the  propriety 
of  choosing  his  eldest  son,  and  they  tell  us  that  he  agreed  to 
this  choice.    Had  Cromwell  been  in  his  senses,  he  would 


234  SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE 

have  probably  fixed  on  Henry,  the  lord  lieutenant  of  Ireland, 
rather  than  on  Richard,  or  possibly  had  not  chosen  either  of 
his  sons  ! 

Elizabeth,  from  womanish  infirmity,  or  from  state-reasons, 
could  not  endure  the  thoughts  of  her  successor ;  and  long 
threw  into  jeopardy  the  politics  of  all  the  cabinets  of  Europe, 
each  of  which  had  its  favourite  candidate  to  support.  The 
legitimate  heir  to  the  throne  of  England  was  to  be  the 
creature  of  her  breath,  yet  Elizabeth  would  not  speak  him 
into  existence  !  This  had,  however,  often  raised  the  discon- 
tents of  the  nation,  and  we  shall  see  how  it  harassed  the 
queen  in  her  dying  hours.  It  is  even  suspected  that  the 
queen  still  retained  so  much  of  the  woman,  that  she  could 
never  overcome  her  perverse  dislike  to  name  a  successor;  so 
that,  according  to  this  opinion,  she  died  and  left  the  crown  to 
the  mercy  of  a  party !  This  would  have  been  acting  un- 
worthy of  the  magnanimity  of  her  great  character — and  as 
it  is  ascertained  that  the  queen  was  very  sensible  that  she  lay 
in  a  dying  state  several  days  before  the  natural  catastrophe 
occurred,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  she  totally  disregarded 
so  important  a  circumstance.  It  is  therefore,  reasoning  a 
'priori,  most  natural  to  conclude  that  the  choice  of  a  successor 
must  have  occupied  her  thoughts,  as  well  as  the  anxieties  of 
her  ministers  ;  and  that  she  would  not  have  left  the  throne 
in  the  same  unsettled  state  at  her  death,  as  she  had  per- 
severed in  during  her  whole  life.  How  did  she  express  her- 
self when  bequeathing  the  crown  to  James  the  First,  or  did 
she  bequeathe  it  at  all  ? 

In  the  popular  pages  of  her  female  historian,  Miss  Aikin 
has  observed,  that  "  the  closing  scene  of  the  long  and  event- 
ful life  of  Queen  Elizabeth  was  marked  by  that  peculiarity 
of  character  and  destiny  which  attended  her  from  the  cradle, 
and  pursued  her  to  the  grave."  The  last  days  of  Elizabeth 
were  indeed  most  melancholy — she  died  a  victim  of  the 
higher  passions,  and  perhaps  as  much  of  grief  as  of  age, 
refusing  all  remedies  and  even  nourishment.    But  in  all  the 


DEATH  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH. 


235 


published  accounts,  I  can  nowhere  discover  how  she  con- 
ducted herself  respecting  the  circumstance  of  our  present 
inquiry.  The  most  detailed  narrative,  or  as  Gray  the  poet 
calls  it,  "the  Earl  of  Monmouth's  odd  account  of  Queen 
Elizabeth's  death,"  is  the  one  most  deserving  notice ;  and 
there  we  find  the  circumstance  of  this  inquiry  introduced. 
The  queen  at  that  moment  was  reduced  to  so  sad  a  state,  that 
it  is  doubtful  whether  her  majesty  was  at  all  sensible  of  the 
inquiries  put  to  her  by  her  ministers  respecting  the  succes- 
sion. The  Earl  of  Monmouth  says,  "  On  Wednesday,  the 
23d  of  March,  she  grew  speechless.  That  afternoon,  by 
signs,  she  called  for  her  council,  and  by  putting  her  hand  to 
her  head  when  the  King  of  Scots  was  named  to  succeed  her, 
they  all  knew  he  was  the  man  she  desired  should  reign  after 
her."  Such  a  sign  as  that  of  a  dying  woman  putting  her 
hand  to  her  head  was,  to  say  the  least,  a  very  ambiguous 
acknowledgment  of  the  right  of  the  Scottish  monarch  to  the 
English  throne.  The  "odd"  but  very  naive  account  of 
Robert  Cary,  afterwards  Earl  of  Monmouth,  is  not  furnished 
with  dates,  nor  with  the  exactness  of  a  diary.  Something 
might  have  occurred  on  a  preceding  day  which  had  not 
reached  him.  Camden  describes  the  death-bed  scene  of 
Elizabeth  ;  by  this  authentic  writer  it  appears  that  she  had 
confided  her  state-secret  of  the  succession  to  the  lord  admiral 
(the  Earl  of  Nottingham)  ;  and  when  the  earl  found  the 
queen  almost  at  her  extremity,  he  communicated  her  majesty's 
secret  to  the  council,  who  commissioned  the  lord  admiral,  the 
lord  keeper,  and  the  secretary,  to  wait  on  her  majesty,  and 
acquaint  her  that  they  came  in  the  name  of  the  rest  to  learn 
her  pleasure  in  reference  to  the  succession.  The  queen  was 
then  very  weak,  and  answered  them  with  a  faint  voice,  that 
3he  had  already  declared,  that  as  she  held  a  regal  sceptre,  so 
she  desired  no  other  than  a  royal  successor.  When  the 
secretary  requested  her  to  explain  herself,  the  queen  said, 
"  I  would  have  a  king  succeed  me ;  and  who  should  that  be 
but  my  nearest  kinsman,  the  King  of  Scots  ?  "     Here  this 


236 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE 


state  conversation  was  put  an  end  to  by  the  interference  of  the 
archbishop  advising  her  majesty  to  turn  her  thoughts  to  God. 
"  Never,"  she  replied,  "  has  ray  mind  wandered  from  him." 

An  historian  of  Camden's  high  integrity  would  hardly 
have  forged  a  fiction  to  please  the  new  monarch  :  yet  Camden 
has  not  been  referred  to  on  this  occasion  by  the  exact  Birch, 
who  draws  his  information  from  the  letters  of  the  French 
ambassador,  Villeroy ;  information  which  it  appears  the 
English  ministers  had  confided  to  this  ambassador ;  nor  do 
we  get  any  distinct  ideas  from  Elizabeth's  more  recent 
popular  historian,  who  could  only  transcribe  the  account  of 
Cary.  He  had  told  us  a  fact  which  he  could  not  be  mistaken 
in,  that  the  queen  fell  speechless  on  Wednesday,  23d  of 
March,  on  which  day,  however,  she  called  her  council,  and 
made  that  sign  with  her  hand,  which,  as  the  lords  chose  to 
understand,  for  ever  united  the  two  kingdoms.  But  the 
noble  editor  of  Cary's  Memoirs  (the  Earl  of  Cork  and 
Orrery)  has  observed,  that  u  the  speeches  made  for  Elizabeth 
on  her  death-bed  are  all  forged."  Echard,  Rapin,  and  a 
long  string  of  historians,  make  her  say  faintly  (so  faintly 
indeed  that  it  could  not  possibly  be  heard,)  "  I  will  that  a 
king  succeed  me,  and  who  should  that  be  but  my  nearest 
kinsman,  the  King  of  Scots  ?  "  A  different  account  of  this 
matter  will  be  found  in  the  following  memoirs.  "  She  was 
speechless,  and  almost  expiring,  when  the  chief  counsellors 
of  state  were  called  into  her  bed-chamber.  As  soon  as  they 
were  perfectly  convinced  that  she  could  not  utter  an  articulate 
word,  and  scarce  could  hear  or  understand  one,  they  named 
the  King  of  Scots  to  her,  a  liberty  they  dared  not  to  have 
taken  if  she  had  been  able  to  speak  ;  she  put  her  hand  to  her 
head,  which  was  probably  at  that  time  in  agonizing  pain. 
The  lords,  who  interpreted  her  signs  just  as  they  pleased, 
were  immediately  convinced  that  the  motion  of  her  hand  to 
her  head  was  a  declaration  of  James  the  Sixth  as  her  suc- 
cessor. What  was  this  but  the  unanimous  interpretation  of 
persons  who  were  adoring  the  rising  sun  ?  " 


DEATH  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH. 


237 


This  is  lively  and  plausible ;  but  the  noble  editor  did  not 
recollect  that,  "  the  speeches  made  by  Elizabeth  on  her 
death-bed,"  which  he  deems  "  forgeries,"  in  consequence  of 
the  circumstance  he  had  found  in  Cary's  Memoirs,  originate 
with  Camden,  and  were  only  repeated  by  Rapin,  and 
Echard,  &c.  I  am  now  to  confirm  the  narrative  of  the  elder 
historian,  as  well  as  the  circumstance  related  by  Cary, 
describing  the  sign  of  the  queen  a  little  differently,  which 
happened  on  Wednesday  23d.  A  hitherto  unnoticed  docu- 
ment pretends  to  give  a  fuller  and  more  circumstantial 
account  of  this  affair,  which  commenced  on  the  preceding 
day,  when  the  queen  retained  the  power  of  speech ;  and  it 
will  be  confessed  that  the  language  here  used  has  all  that 
loftiness  and  brevity  which  was  the  natural  style  of  this 
queen.  I  have  discovered  a  curious  document  in  a  manu- 
script volume  formerly  in  the  possession  of  Petyt,  and  seem- 
ingly in  his  own  handwriting.  I  do  not  doubt  its  authenticity, 
and  it  could  only  have  come  from  some  of  the  illustrious 
personages  who  were  the  actors  in  that  solemn  scene,  prob- 
ably from  Cecil.    This  memorandum  is  entitled 

"  Account  of  the  last  words  of  Queen  Elizabeth  about  her 
Successor. 

"  On  the  Tuesday  before  her  death,  being  the  twenty-third 
of  March,  the  admiral  being  on  the  right  side  of  her  bed,  the 
lord  keeper  on  the  left,  and  Mr.  Secretary  Cecil  (afterwards 
Earl  of  Salisbury)  at  the  bed's  feet,  all  standing,  the  lord 
admiral  put  her  in  mind  of  her  speech  concerning  the  suc- 
cession had  at  Whitehall,  and  that  they,  in  the  name  of  all 
the  rest  of  her  council,  came  unto  her  to  know  her  pleasure 
who  should  succeed ;  whereunto  she  thus  replied : 

"I  told  you  my  seat  had  been  the  seat  of  kings,  and  I  will 
have  no  rascal  to  succeed  me.  And  who  should  succeed  me 
but  a  king  ? 

"  The  lords  not  understanding  this  dark  speech,  and  look- 
ing one  on  the  other ;  at  length  Mr.  Secretary  boldly  asked 
her  what  she  meant  by  those  words,  that  no  rascal  should 


238    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  THE  DEATH  OF  ELIZABETH. 

succeed  her.  Whereto  she  replied,  that  her  meaning  was, 
that  a  king  should  succeed:  and  who,  quoth  she,  should  that 
be  but  our  cousin  of  Scotland  ? 

"  They  asked  her  whether  that  were  her  absolute  resolu- 
tion ?  whereto  she  answered,  1  pray  you  trouble  me  no  more  ; 
for  I  will  have  none  but  him.  With  which  answer  they 
departed. 

"  Notwithstanding,  after  again,  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  the  next  day,  being  Wednesday,  after  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  other  divines,  had  been  with  her, 
and  left  her  in  a  manner  speechless,  the  three  lords  aforesaid 
repaired  unto  her  again,  asking  her  if  she  remained  in  her 
former  resolution,  and  who  should  succeed  her  ?  but  not 
being  able  to  speak,  was  asked  by  Mr.  Secretary  in  this 
sort,  '  We  beseech  your  majesty,  if  you  remain  in  your 
former  resolution,  and  that  you  would  have  the  king  of  Scots 
to  succeed  you  in  your  kingdom,  show  some  sign  unto  us : 
whereat,  suddenly  heaving  herself  upwards  in  her  bed,  and 
putting  her  arms  out  of  bed,  she  held  her  hands  jointly  over 
her  head  in  manner  of  a  crown  ;  whence  as  they  guessed, 
she  signified  that  she  did  not  only  wish  him  the  kingdom, 
but  desire  continuance  of  his  estate :  after  which  they  de- 
parted, and  the  next  morning  she  died.  Immediately  after 
her  death,  all  the  lords,  as  well  of  the  council  as  other  noble- 
men that  were  at  the  court,  came  from  Richmond  to  White- 
hall by  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  where  other  noblemen 
that  were  in  London  met  them.  Touching  the  succession, 
after  some  speeches  of  divers  competitors  and  matters  of 
state,  at  length  the  admiral  rehearsed  all  the  aforesaid  prem- 
ises which  the  late  queen  had  spoken  to  him,  and  to  the  lord 
keeper,  and  Mr.  Secretary  (Cecil,)  with  the  manner  thereof; 
which  they,  being  asked,  did  affirm  to  be  true  upon  their 

HONOUR." 

Such  is  this  singular  document  of  secret  history.  I  cannot 
but  value  it  as  authentic,  because  the  one  part  is  evidently 
alluded  to  by  Camden,  and  the  other  is  fully  confirmed  by 


JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND.  230 


Cary ;  and  besides  this,  the  remarkable  expression  of 
"  rascal "  is  found  in  the  letter  of  the  French  ambassador. 
There  were  two  interviews  with  the  queen,  and  Cary  appears 
only  to  have  noticed  the  last  on  Wednesday,  when  the  queen 
lay  speechless.  Elizabeth  all  her  life  had  persevered  in  an 
obstinate  mysteriousness  respecting  the  succession,  and  it 
harassed  her  latest  moments.  The  second  interview  of  her 
ministers  may  seem  to  us  quite  supernumerary ;  but  Cary's 
"  putting  her  hand  to  her  head,"  too  meanly  describes  the 
"joining  her  hands  in  manner  of  a  crown." 


JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND. 

Calumnies  and  sarcasms  have  reduced  the  character  of 
James  the  First  to  contempt  among  general  readers ;  while 
the  narrative  of  historians,  who  have  related  facts  in  spite 
of  themselves,  is  in  perpetual  contradiction  with  their  own 
opinions.  Perhaps  no  sovereign  has  suffered  more  by  that 
art,  which  is  described  by  an  old  Irish  proverb,  of  "  killing  a 
man  by  lies."  The  surmises  and  the  insinuations  of  one 
party,  dissatisfied  with  the  established  government  in  church 
and  state ;  the  misconceptions  of  more  modern  writers,  who 
have  not  possessed  the  requisite  knowledge ;  and  the  anony- 
mous libels,  sent  forth  at  a  particular  period  to  vilify  the 
Stuarts  ;  all  these  cannot  be  treasured  up  by  the  philosopher 
as  the  authorities  of  history.  It  is  at  least  more  honourable 
to  resist  popular  prejudice  than  to  yield  to  it  a  passive  obe- 
dience ;  and  what  we  can  ascertain,  it  would  be  a  dereliction 
of  truth  to  conceal.  Much  can  be  substantiated  in  favour  of 
the  domestic  affections  and  habits  of  this  pacific  monarch ; 
and  those  who  are  more  intimately  acquainted  with  the 
secret  history  of  the  times  will  perceive  how  erroneously  the 
personal  character  of  this  sovereign  is  exhibited  in  our 
popular  historians,  and  often  even  among  the  few,  who  with 


240  JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND. 


better  information,  have  reechoed  their  preconceived  opin- 
ions. 

Confining  myself  here  to  his  domestic  character,  I  shall 
not  touch  on  the  many  admirable  public  projects  of  this 
monarch,  which  have  extorted  the  praise,  and  even  the  ad- 
miration, of  some  who  have  not  spared  their  pens  in  his 
disparagement.  James  the  First  has  been  taxed  with  pusil- 
lanimity and  foolishness ;  this  monarch  cannot,  however,  be 
reproached  with  having  engendered  them  !  All  his  children, 
in  whose  education  their  father  was  so  deeply  concerned, 
sustained  through  life  a  dignified  character,  and  a  high  spirit. 
The  short  life  of  Henry  was  passed  in  a  school  of  prowess, 
and  amidst  an  academy  of  literature.  Of  the  king's  paternal 
solicitude,  even  to  the  hand  and  the  letter-writing  of  Prince 
Henry  when  young,  I  have  preserved  a  proof  in  the  article 
of  "  The  History  of  Writing-masters."  Charles  the  First,  in 
his  youth  more  particularly  designed  for  a  studious  life,  with 
a  serious  character,  was,  however,  never  deficient  in  active 
bravery  and  magnanimous  fortitude.  Of  Elizabeth,  the  queen 
of  Bohemia,  tried  as  she  was  by  such  vicissitudes  of  fortune, 
it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  interesting  story  remains 
untold ;  her  buoyant  spirits  rose  always  above  the  perpetual 
changes  of  a  princely  to  a  private  state — a  queen  to  an  exile  ! 
The  father  of  such  children  derives  some  distinction  for  capac- 
ity, in  having  reared  such  a  noble  offspring ;  and  the  king's 
marked  attention  to  the  formation  of  his  children's  minds 
was  such  as  to  have  been  pointed  out  by  Ben  Jonson,  who, 
in  his  "  Gipsies  Metamorphosed,"  rightly  said  of  James,  using 
his  native  term, — 

u  You  are  an  honest,  good  man,  and  have  care  of  your  Bearns  "  (bairns). 

Among  the  flouts  and  gibes  so  freely  bespattering  the  per- 
sonal character  of  James  the  First,  is  one  of  his  coldness  and 
neglect  of  his  queen.  It  would,  however,  be  difficult  to 
prove  by  any  known  fact,  that  James  was  not  as  indulgent 
a  husband,  as  he  was  a  father.    Yet  even  a  writer  so  well 


JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND.  241 


informed  as  Daines  Barrington,  who,  as  a  lawyer,  could  not 
refrain  from  lauding  the  royal  sage  during  his  visit  to  Den- 
mark, on  his  marriage,  for  having  borrowed  three  statutes 
from  the  Danish  code,  found  the  king's  name  so  provocative 
of  sarcasm,  that  he  could  not  forbear  observing,  that  James 
"spent  more  time  in  those  courts  of  judicature  than  in  attend- 
ing upon  his  destined  consort." — "  Men  of  all  sorts  have 
taken  a  pride  to  gird  at  me,"  might  this  monarch  have  ex- 
claimed. But  every  thing  has  two  handles,  saith  the  ancient 
adage.  Had  an  austere  puritan  chosen  to  observe  that  James 
the  First,  when  abroad,  had  lived  jovially ;  and  had  this 
historian  then  dropped  silently  the  interesting  circumstance 
of  the  king's  "  spending  his  time  in  the  Danish  courts  of 
judicature,"  the  fact  would  have  borne  him  out  in  his  re- 
proof ;  and  Francis  Osborne,  indeed,  has  censured  James  for 
giving  marks  of  his  uxoriousness  /  There  was  no  deficient 
gallantry  in  the  conduct  of  James  the  First  to  his  queen ; 
the  very  circumstance,  that  when  the  princess  of  Denmark 
was  driven  by  a  storm  back  to  Norway,  the  king  resolved  to 
hasten  to  her,  and  consummate  his  marriage  in  Denmark, 
was  itself  as  romantic  an  expedition  as  afterwards  was  that 
of  his  son's  into  Spain,  and  betrays  no  mark  of  that  tame 
pusillanimity  with  which  he  stands  overcharged. 

The  character  of  the  queen  of  James  the  First  is  some- 
what obscure  in  our  public  history,  for  in  it  she  makes  no 
prominent  figure ;  while  in  secret  history  she  is  more  ap- 
parent. Anne  of  Denmark  was  a  spirited  and  enterprising 
woman ;  and  it  appears  from  a  passage  in  Sully,  whose  au- 
thority should  weigh  with  us,  although  we  ought  to  recollect 
that  it  is  the  French  minister  who  writes,  that  she  seems  to 
have  raised  a  court  faction  against  James,  and  inclined  to 
favour  the  Spanish  and  catholic  interests ;  yet  it  may  be 
alleged  as  a  strong  proof  of  James's  political  wisdom,  that 
the  queen  was  never  suffered  to  head  a  formidable  party, 
though  she  latterly  might  have  engaged  Prince  Henry  in 
that  court-opposition.    The  bon-homie  of  the  king,  on  this 

VOL.  IV.  16 


242  JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND. 


subject,  expressed  with  a  simplicity  of  style,  which,  though  it 
may  not  be  royal,  is  something  better,  appears  in  a  letter  to 
the  queen,  which  has  been  preserved  in  the  appendix  to  Sir 
David  Dalrymple's  collections.  It  is  without  date,  but  writ- 
ten when  in  Scotland  to  quiet  the  queen's  suspicions,  that  the 
Earl  of  Mar,  who  had  the  care  of  Prince  Henry,  and  whom 
she  wished  to  take  out  of  his  hands,  had  insinuated  to  the 
king  that  her  majesty  was  strongly  disposed  to  any  "  popish 
or  Spanish  course."  This  letter  confirms  the  representation 
of  Sully ;  but  the  extract  is  remarkable  for  the  manly  sim- 
plicity of  style  which  the  king  used. 

"  I  say  over  again,  leave  these  froward  womanly  apprehen- 
sions, for  I  thank  God,  I  carry  that  love  and  respect  unto 
you,  which,  by  the  law  of  God  and  nature,  I  ought  to  do  to 
my  wife,  and  mother  of  my  children  ;  but  not  for  that  ye  are 
a  king's  daughter ;  for  whether  ye  were  a  king's  daughter,  or 
a  cook's  daughter,  ye  must  be  all  alike  to  me,  since  my  wife. 
For  the  respect  of  your  honourable  birth  and  descent  I  mar- 
ried you  ;  but  the  love  and  respect  I  now  bear  you  is  be- 
cause that  ye  are  my  married  wife,  and  so  partaker  of  my 
honour,  as  of  my  other  fortunes.  I  beseech  you  excuse  my 
plainness  in  this,  for  casting  up  of  your  birth  is  a  needless 
impertinent  argument  to  me  (that  is,  not  pertinent).  God  is 
my  witness,  I  ever  preferred  you  to  (for)  my  bairns,  much 
more  than  to  a  subject." 

In  an  ingenious  historical  dissertation,  but  one  perfectly 
theoretical,  respecting  that  mysterious  transaction  the  Gowrie 
conspiracy,  Pinkerton  has  attempted  to  show  that  Anne  of 
Denmark  was  a  lady  somewhat  inclined  to  intrigue,  and  that 
"  the  king  had  cause  to  be  jealous."  He  confesses  that  "  he 
cannot  discover  any  positive  charge  of  adultery  against  Anne 
of  Denmark,  but  merely  of  coquetry."  *  To  what  these 
accusations  amount  it  would  be  difficult  to  say.   The  progeny 

*  The  historical  dissertation  is  appended  to  the  first  volume  of  Mr.  Mai  - 
colm  Laing's  "  History  of  Scotland,"  who  thinks  that  "  it  has  placed  that 
obscure  transaction  in  its  genuine  light." 


JAMES  THE  FIRST,  AS  A  FATHER  AND  A  HUSBAND.  243 

of  James  the  First  sufficiently  bespeak  their  family  resem- 
blance. If  it  be  true,  that  "  the  king  had  ever  reason  to  be 
jealous,"  and  yet  that  no  single  criminal  act  of  the  queen's 
has  been  recorded,  it  must  be  confessed  that  one  or  both  of 
the  parties  were  singularly  discreet  and  decent ;  for  the  king 
never  complained,  and  the  queen  was  never  accused,  if  we 
except  this  burthen  of  an  old  Scottish  ballad, 

"  0  the  bonny  Earl  of  Murray, 
He  was  the  queen's  love." 

Whatever  may  have  happened  in  Scotland,  in  England  the 
queen  appears  to  have  lived  occupied  chiefly  by  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  court,  and  not  to  have  interfered  with  the  arcana 
of  state.  She  appears  to  have  indulged  a  passion  for  the  ele- 
gancies and  splendours  of  the  age,  as  they  were  shown  in 
those  gorgeous  court  masques  with  which  the  taste  of  James 
harmonized,  either  from  his  gallantry  for  the  queen,  or  his 
own  poetic  sympathy.  But  this  taste  for  court  masques  could 
not  escape  the  slur  and  scandal  of  the  puritanic,  and  these 
"high-flying  fancies"  are  thus  recorded  by  honest  Arthur 
Wilson,  whom  we  summon  into  court  as  an  indubitable  wit- 
ness of  the  mutual  cordiality  of  this  royal  couple.  In  the 
spirit  of  his  party,  and  like  Milton,  he  censures  the  taste,  but 
likes  it.  He  says,  "  The  court  being  a  continued  maskarado, 
where  she  (the  queen)  and  her  ladies,  like  so  many  sea- 
nymphs  or  Nereides,  appeared  often  in  various  dresses,  to  the 
ravishment  of  the  beholders  ;  the  king  himself  not  being  a 
little  delighted  with  such  fluent  elegancies  as  made  the  night 
more  glorious  than  the  day."  This  is  a  direct  proof  that 
James  was  by  no  means  cold  or  negligent  in  his  attentions  to 
his  queen  ;  and  the  letter  which  has  been  given  is  the  picture 
of  his  mind.  That  James  the  First  was  fondly  indulgent  to 
his  queen,  and  could  perform  an  act  of  chivalric  gallantry 
with  all  the  generosity  of  passion,  and  the  ingenuity  of  an 
elegant  mind,  a  pleasing  anecdote  which  I  have  discovered  in 
an  unpublished  letter  of  the  day  will  show.  I  give  it  in  the 
words  of  the  writer. 


244 


THE  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK. 


"August,  1613. 

"  At  their  last  being  at  Theobalds,  about  a  fortnight  ago, 
the  queen,  shooting  at  a  deer,  mistook  her  mark,  and  killed 
Jewel,  the  king's  most  principal  and  special  hound  ;  at  which 
he  stormed  exceedingly  awhile  ;  but  after  he  knew  who  did 
it,  he  was  soon  pacified,  and  with  much  kindness  wished  her 
not  to  be  troubled  with  it,  for  he  should  love  her  never  the 
worse  :  and  the  next  day  sent  her  a  diamond  worth  two 
thousand  pounds  as  a  legacy  from  his  dead  dog.  Love  and 
kindness  increased  daily  between  them." 

Such  is  the  history  of  a  contemporary  living  at  court,  very 
opposite  to  that  representation  of  coldness  and  neglect  with 
which  the  king's  temper  has  been  so  freely  aspersed;  and 
such  too  is  the  true  portrait  of  James  the  First  in  domestic 
life.  His  first  sensations  were  thoughtless  and  impetuous  ; 
and  he  would  ungracefully  thunder  out  an  oath,  which  a  puri- 
tan would  set  down  in  his  "  tables,"  while  he  omitted  to  note 
that  this  king's  forgiveness  and  forgetfulness  of  personal 
injuries  were  sure  to  follow  the  feeling  they  had  excited. 


THE  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK. 

Mr.  Maurice,  in  his  animated  memoirs,  has  recently 
acquainted  us  with  a  fact  which  may  be  deemed  important  in 
the  life  of  a  literary  man.  He  tells  us,  "  We  have  been  just 
informed  that  Sir  William  Jones  invariably  read  through 
every  year  the  works  of  Cicero,  whose  life  indeed  was  the 
great  exemplar  of  his  own."  The  same  passion  for  the  works 
of  Cicero  has  been  participated  by  others.  When  the  best 
means  of  forming  a  good  style  were  inquired  of  the  learned 
Arnauld,  he  advised  the  daily  study  of  Cicero  ;  but  it  was  ob- 
served that  the  object  was  not  to  form  a  Latin,  but  a  French 
style :  "  In  that  case,"  replied  Arnauld,  "  you  must  still  read 
Cicero." 


THE  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK. 


245 


A  predilection  for  some  great  author,  among  the  vast  num- 
ber which  must  transiently  occupy  our  attention,  seems  to  be 
the  happiest  preservative  for  our  taste  :  accustomed  to  that 
excellent  author  whom  we  have  chosen  for  our  favourite,  we 
may  in  this  intimacy  possibly  resemble  him.  It  is  to  be 
feared,  that  if  we  do  not  form  such  a  permanent  attachment, 
we  may  be  acquiring  knowledge,  while  our  enervated  taste 
becomes  less  and  less  lively.  Taste  embalms  the  knowledge 
which  otherwise  cannot  preserve  itself.  He  who  has  long 
been  intimate  with  one  great  author,  will  always  be  found  to 
be  a  formidable  antagonist ;  he  has  saturated  his  mind  with 
the  excellencies  of  genius  ;  he  has  shaped  his  faculties  insen- 
sibly to  himself  by  his  model,  and  he  is  like  a  man  who  ever 
sleeps  in  armour,  ready  at  a  moment !  The  old  Latin  proverb 
reminds  us  of  this  fact,  Cave  ab  homine  unius  libri :  Be  cau- 
tious of  the  man  of  one  book  ! 

Pliny  and  Seneca  give  very  safe  advice  on  reading :  that 
we  should  read  much,  but  not  many  books — but  they  had  no 
"  monthly  list  of  new  publications  !  "  Since  their  days  others 
have  favoured  us  with  "  Methods  of  Study,"  and  "  Catalogues 
of  Books  to  be  read."  Vain  attempts  to  circumscribe  that 
invisible  circle  of  human  knowledge  which  is  perpetually  en- 
larging itself!  The  multiplicity  of  books  is  an  evil  for  the 
many  ;  for  we  now  find  an  helluo  librorum  not  only  among 
the  learned,  but,  with  their  pardon,  among  the  unlearned; 
for  those  who,  even  to  the  prejudice  of  their  health,  persist 
only  in  reading  the  incessant  book-novelties  of  our  own  time, 
will  after  many  years  acquire  a  sort  of  learned  ignorance. 
We  are  now  in  want  of  an  art  to  teach  how  books  are  to  be 
read,  rather  than  not  to  read  them  :  such  an  art  is  practica- 
ble. But  amidst  this  vast  multitude  still  let  us  be  "  the  man 
of  one  book,"  and  preserve  an  uninterrupted  intercourse  with 
that  great  author  with  whose  mode  of  thinking  we  sympa- 
thize, and  whose  charms  of  composition  we  can  habitually 
retain. 

It  is  remarkable  that  every  great  writer  appears  to  have  a 


246  THE  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK. 

predilection  for  some  favourite  author  ;  and,  with  Alexander, 
had  they  possessed  a  golden  casket,  would  have  enshrined 
the  works  they  so  constantly  turned  over.  Demosthenes  felt 
such  delight  in  the  history  of  Thucydides,  that,  to  obtain  a 
familiar  and  perfect  mastery  of  his  style,  he  recopied  his 
history  eight  times  ;  while  Brutus  not  only  was  constantly 
perusing  Polybius  even  amidst  the  most  busy  periods  of  his 
life,  but  was  abridging  a  copy  of  that  author  on  the  last  awful 
night  of  his  existence,  when  on  the  following  day  he  was  to 
try  his  fate  against  Antony  and  Octavius.  Selim  the  Second 
had  the  Commentaries  of  Caesar  translated  for  his  use ;  and 
it  is  recorded  that  his  military  ardour  was  heightened  by  the 
perusal.  We  are  told  that  Scipio  Africanus  was  made  a  hero 
by  the  writings  of  Xenophon.  When  Clarendon  was  em- 
ployed in  writing  his  history,  he  was  in  a  constant  study  of 
Livy  and  Tacitus,  to  acquire  the  full  and  flowing  style  of  the 
one,  and  the  portrait-painting  of  the  other :  he  records  this 
circumstance  in  a  letter.  V oltaire  had  usually  on  his  table 
the  Athalie  of  Racine,  and  the  Petit  Careme  of  Massillon  ; 
the  tragedies  of  the  one  were  the  finest  model  of  French 
verse,  the  sermons  of  the  other  of  French  prose.  "  Were  I 
obliged  to  sell  my  library,"  exclaimed  Diderot,  "  I  would  keep 
back  Moses,  Homer,  and  Richardson ; "  and,  by  the  eloge 
which  this  enthusiastic  writer  composed  on  our  English  nov- 
elist, it  is  doubtful,  had  the  Frenchman  been  obliged  to  have 
lost  two  of  them,  whether  Richard-on  had  not  been  the  elected 
favourite.  Monsieur  Thomas,  a  French  writer,  who  at  times 
displays  high  eloquence  and  profound  thinking,  Herault  de 
Sechelles  tells  us,  studied  chiefly  one  author,  but  that  author 
was  Cicero  ;  and  never  went  into  the  country  unaccompanied 
by  some  of  his  works.  Fenelon  was  constantly  employed  on 
his  Homer ;  he  left  a  translation  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
Odyssey,  without  any  design  of  publication,  but  merely  as  an 
exercise  for  style.  Montesquieu  was  a  constant  student  of 
Tacitus,  of  whom  he  must  be  considered  a  forcible  imitator. 
He  has,  in  the  manner  of  Tacitus,  characterized  Tacitus  : 


THE  MAN  OF  ONE  BOOK. 


2  17 


"  That  historian,"  he  says,  "  who  abridged  every  tiling, 
because  he  saw  every  thing."  The  famous  Bourdaloue  re- 
perused  every  year  Saint  Paul,  Saint  Chrysostom,  and 
Cicero.  "  These,"  says  a  French  critic,  "  were  the  sources 
of  his  masculine  and  solid  eloquence."  Grotius  had  such  a 
taste  for  Lucan,  that  he  always  carried  a  pocket  edition  about 
him,  and  has  been  seen  to  kiss  his  hand-book  with  the  rap- 
ture of  a  true  votary.  If  this  anecdote  be  true,  the  elevated 
sentiments  of  the  stern  Roman  were  probably  the  attraction 
with  the  Batavian  republican.  The  diversified  reading  of 
Leibnitz  is  well  known  ;  but  he  still  attached  himself  to  one 
or  two  favourites :  Virgil  was  always  in  his  hand  when  at 
leisure,  and  Leibnitz  had  read  Virgil  so  often,  that  even  in 
his  old  age  he  could  repeat  whole  books  by  heart ;  Barclay's 
Argenis  was  his  model  for  prose  ;  when  he  was  found  dead 
in  his  chair,  the  Argenis  had  fallen  from  his  hands.  Rabelais 
and  Marot  wrere  the  perpetual  favourites  of  La  Fontaine  ; 
from  one  he  borrowed  his  humour,  and  from  the  other  his 
style.  Quevedo  was  so  passionately  fond  of  the  Don  Quixote 
of  Cervantes,  that  often  in  reading  that  unrivalled  work  he 
felt  an  impulse  to  burn  his  own  inferior  compositions :  to  be 
a  sincere  admirer  and  a  hopeless  rival  is  a  case  of  authorship 
the  hardest  imaginable.  Few  writers  can  venture  to  antici- 
pate the  award  of  posterity ;  yet  perhaps  Quevedo  had  not 
even  been  what  he  was,  without  the  perpetual  excitement  he 
received  from  his  great  master.  Horace  was  the  friend  of 
his  heart  to  Malherbe ;  he  laid  the  Roman  poet  on  his  pillow, 
took  him  in  the  fields,  and  called  his  Horace  his  breviary. 
Plutarch,  Montaigne,  and  Locke,  were  the  three  authors  con- 
stantly in  the  hands  of  Rousseau,  and  he  has  drawn  from 
them  the  groundwork  of  his  ideas  in  his  Emile.  The  favour- 
ite author  of  the  great  Earl  of  Chatham  was  Barrow  ;  and  on 
his  style  he  had  formed  his  eloquence,  and  had  read  his  great 
master  so  constantly,  as  to  be  able  to  repeat  his  elaborate  ser- 
mons from  memory.  The  great  Lord  Burleigh  always  car- 
ried Tully's  Offices  in  his  pocket ;  Charles  V.  and  Bonaparte 


248 


A  BIBLIOGNOSTE. 


had  Machiavel  frequently  in  their  hands  ;  and  Davila  was 
the  perpetual  study  of  Hampden  :  he  seemed  to  have  discov- 
ered in  that  historian  of  civil  wars  those  which  he  anticipated 
in  the  land  of  his  fathers. 

These  facts  sufficiently  illustrate  the  recorded  circum- 
stance of  Sir  William  Jones's  invariable  habit  of  reading  his 
Cicero  through  every  year,  and  exemplify  the  happy  result 
for  him,  who,  amidst  the  multiplicity  of  his  authors,  still  con- 
tinues in  this  way  to  be  "  the  man  of  one  book." 


A  BIBLIOGNOSTE. 

A  startling  literary  prophecy,  recently  sent  forth  from 
our  oracular  literature,  threatens  the  annihilation  of  public 
libraries,  which  are  one  day  to  moulder  away  ! 

Listen  to  the  vaticinator  !  "  As  conservatories  of  mental 
treasures,  their  value  in  times  of  darkness  and  barbarity  was 
incalculable ;  and  even  in  these  happier  days,  wThen  men  are 
incited  to  explore  new  regions  of  thought,  they  command 
respect  as  depots  of  methodical  and  well-ordered  references 
for  the  researches  of  the  curious.  But  what  in  one  state  of 
society  is  invaluable,  may  at  another  be  worthless ;  and  the 
progress  which  the  world  has  made  within  a  very  few  cen- 
turies has  considerably  reduced  the  estimation  which  is  due 
to  such  establishments.  We  will  say  more — "  *  but  enough ! 
This  idea  of  striking  into  dust  "  the  god  of  his  idolatry,"  the 
Dagon  of  his  devotion,  is  sufficient  to  terrify  the  biblio- 
grapher, who  views  only  a  blind  Samson  pulling  down  the 
pillars  of  his  temple ! 

This  future  universal  inundation  of  books,  this  superfluity 
of  knowledge,  in  billions,  and  trillions,  overwhelms  the  imagi- 
nation !  It  is  now  about  four  hundred  years  since  the  art  of 
multiplying  books  has  been  discovered  ;  and  an  arithmetician 
*  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xxxiv.  384. 


A  BIBLIOGNOSTE. 


2!9 


has  attempted  to  calculate  the  incalculable  of  these  four 
ages  of  typography,  which  he  discovers  have  actually  pro- 
duced 3,641,960  works  !  Taking  each  work  at  three  volumes, 
and  reckoning  only  each  impression  to  consist  of  thr<  e 
hundred  copies,  which  is  too  little,  the  actual  amount  from 
the  presses  of  Europe  will  give  to  1816—3,277,764,000 
volumes  !  each  of  which  being  an  inch  thick,  if  placed  on  a 
line,  would  cover  6,069  leagues !  Leibnitz  facetiously  main- 
tained that  such  would  be  the  increase  of  literature,  that 
future  generations  would  find  whole  cities  insufficient  to  con- 
tain their  libraries.  We  are,  however,  indebted  to  the  patri- 
otic endeavours  of  our  grocers  and  trunkmakers,  alchemists 
of  literature  !  they  annihilate  the  gross  bodies  without  in- 
juring the  finer  spirits.  We  are  still  more  indebted  to  that 
neglected  race,  the  bibliographers ! 

The  science  of  books,  for  so  bibliography  is  sometimes 
dignified,  may  deserve  the  gratitude  of  a  public,  who  are  yet 
insensible  of  the  useful  zeal  of  those  book-practitioners,  the 
nature  of  whose  labours  is  yet  so  imperfectly  comprehended. 
Who  is  this  vaccinator  of  the  uselessness  of  public  libraries  ? 
Is  he  a  bibliognoste,  or  a  bibliographe,  or  a  bibliomane,  or  a 
bibliophile,  or  a  bibliotctphe  ?  A  bibliotliecaire,  or  a  bibliopole, 
the  prophet  cannot  be ;  for  the  bibliotliecaire  is  too  delight- 
fully busied  among  his  shelves,  and  the  bibliopole  is  too 
profitably  concerned  in  furnishing  perpetual  additions,  to 
admit  of  this  hyperbolical  terror  of  annihilation  !  * 

Unawares,  we  have  dropped  into  that  professional  jargon 
which  was  chiefly  forged  by  one  who,  though  seated  in  the 
"scorner's  chair,"  was  the  Thaumaturgus  of  books  and  manu- 
scripts. The  Abbe  Rive  had  acquired  a  singular  taste  and 
curiosity,  not  without  a  fermenting  dash  of  singular  charla- 

*  Will  this  writer  pardon  me  for  ranking  him,  for  a  moment,  among 
those  "  generalizes  "  of  the  age  who  excel  in  what  a  critical  friend  has 
happily  discriminated  as  ambitions  writing ;  that  is,  writing  on  any  topic, 
and  not  least  strikingly  on  that  of  which  they  know  least;  men  otherwise 
of  fine  taste,  and  who  excel  in  every  charm  of  composition. 


250 


A  BIBLIOGXOSTE. 


tanerie,  in  bibliography :  the  little  volumes  he  occasionally 
put  forth  are  things  which  but  few  hands  have  touched.  He 
knew  well,  that  for  some  books  to  be  noised  about,  they 
should  not  be  read :  this  was  one  of  those  recondite  mysteries 
of  his,  which  we  may  have  occasion  further  to  reveal.  This 
bibliographical  hero  was  librarian  to  the  most  magnificent  of 
book-collectors,  the  Duke  de  la  Valliere.  The  Abbe  Rive 
was  a  strong  but  ungovernable  brute,  rabid,  surly,  but  tres- 
mordant.  His  master,  whom  I  have  discovered  to  have  been 
the  partner  of  the  cur's  tricks,  would  often  pat  him ;  and 
when  the  bibliognost  es,  and  the  bibliomanes,  were  in  the  heat 
of  contest,  let  his  "  bull-dog  "  loose  among  them,  as  the  duke 
affectionately  called  his  librarian.  The  "  bull-dog  "  of  biblio- 
graphy appears,  too,  to  have  had  the  taste  and  appetite  of 
the  tiger  of  politics,  but  he  hardly  lived  to  join  the  festival 
of  the  guillotine.  I  judge  of  this  by  an  expression  he  used 
to  one  complaining  of  his  parish  priest,  whom  he  advised  to 
give  "  une  messe  dans  son  ventre  !  *  He  had  tried  to  exhaust 
his  genius  in  La  Chasse  aux  Bibliographes  et  aux  Antiquaires 
mal  avises,  and  acted  Cain  with  his  brothers !  All  Europe 
was  to  receive  from  him  new  ideas  concerning  books  and 
manuscripts.  Yet  all  his  mighty  promises  fumed  away  in 
projects  ;  and  though  he  appeared  for  ever  correcting  the 
blunders  of  others,  this  French  Ritson  left  enough  of  his 
own  to  afford  them  a  choice  of  revenge.  His  style  of  criti- 
cism was  perfectly  Ritsonian.  He  describes  one  of  his  rivals, 
as  Vinsolent  et  tres-insense  auteur  de  V Almanack  de  Gotha, 
on  the  simple  subject  of  the  origin  of  playing-cards! 

The  Abbe  Rive  was  one  of  those  men  of  letters,  of  whom 
there  are  not  a  few  who  pass  all  their  lives  in  preparations. 
Dr.  Dibdin,  since  the  above  was  written,  has  witnessed  the 
confusion  of  the  mind,  and  the  gigantic  industry  of  our  bibliog- 
noste,  which  consisted  of  many  trunks  full  of  memoranda. 
The  description  will  show  the  reader  to  what  hard  hunting 
these  book-hunters  voluntarily  doom  themselves,  with  little 
hope  of  obtaining  fame !    "  In  one  trunk  were  about  six 


A  BIFLIOGNOSTE. 


251 


thousand  notices  of  MSS.  of  all  ages.  In  another  were 
wedged  about  twelve  thousand  descriptions  of  books  in  all 
languages,  except  those  of  French  and  Italian  ;  sometimes 
with  critical  notes.  In  a  third  trunk  was  a  bundle  of  papers 
relating  to  the  History  of  the  Troubadours.  In  a  fourth  was 
a  collection  of  memoranda  and  literary  sketches  connected 
with  the  invention  of  arts  and  sciences,  with  pieces  exclu- 
sively bibliographical.  A  fifth  trunk  contained  between  two 
and  three  thousand  cards,  written  upon  each  side,  respecting 
a  collection  of  prints.  In  a  sixth  trunk  were  contained  his 
papers  respecting  earthquakes,  volcanoes,  and  geographical 
subjects."  Thi3  Ajax  flagellifer  of  the  bibliographical  tribe, 
who  was,  as  Dr.  Dibdin  observes,  "  the  terror  of  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  the  pride  of  his  patron,"  is  said  to  have  been  in 
private  a  very  different  man  from  his  public  character ;  all 
which  may  be  true,  without  altering  a  shade  of  that  public 
character.  The  French  revolution  showed  how  men,  mild 
and  even  kind  in  domestic  life,  were  sanguinary  and  ferocious 
in  their  public. 

The  rabid  Abbe  Rive  gloried  in  terrifying,  without  en- 
lightening his  rivals ;  he  exulted  that  he  was  devoting  to 
u  the  rods  of  criticism  and  the  laughter  of  Europe  the  biblio- 
poles" or  dealers  in  books,  who  would  not  get  by  heart  his 
"  Catechism  "  of  a  thousand  and  one  questions  and  answers : 
it  broke  the  slumbers  of  honest  De  Bure,  who  had  found  that 
life  was  already  too  short  for  his  own  "  Bibliographie  In- 
structive." 

The  Abbe  Rive  had  contrived  to  catch  the  shades  of  the 
appellatives  necessary  to  discriminate  book-amateurs  ;  and 
of  the  first  term  he  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  inventor. 

A  bibliognoste,  from  the  Greek,  is  one  knowing  in  title- 
pages  and  colophons,  and  in  editions;  the  place  and  year 
when  printed ;  the  presses  whence  issued ;  and  all  the 
minutice  of  a  book. 

A  bibliographe  is  a  describer  of  books  and  other  literary 
arrangements. 


I 


252 


A  BIBLIOGXOSTE. 


A  bibliomane  is  an  indiscriminate  accumulator,  who  blun- 
ders faster  than  he  buys,  cock-brained,  and  purse-heavy ! 

A  bibliophile,  the  lover  of  books,  is  the  only  one  in  the 
class  who  appears  to  read  them  for  his  own  pleasure. 

A  bibliotapke  buries  his  books,  by  keeping  them  under 
lock,  or  framing  them  in  glass-cases. 

I  shall  catch  our  bibliognoste  in  the  hour  of  book-rapture ! 
It  will  produce  a  collection  of  bibliographical  writers,  and 
show  to  the  second-sighted  Edinburgher  what  human  contri- 
vances have  been  raised  by  the  art  of  more  painful  writers 
than  himself — either  to  postpone  the  day  of  universal  anni- 
hilation, or  to  preserve  for  our  posterity,  three  centuries 
hence,  the  knowledge  which  now  so  busily  occupies  us,  and 
transmit  to  them  something  more  than  what  Bacon  calls,  '"In- 
ventories" of  our  literary  treasures. 

"  Histories,  and  literary  bibliotheques  (or  bibliothecas.)  will 
always  present  to  us,"  says  La  Rive,  "  an  immense  harvest 
of  errors,  till  the  authors  of  such  catalogues  shall  be  fully 
impressed  by  the  importance  of  their  art ;  and,  as  it  were, 
reading  in  the  most  distant  ages  of  the  future  the  literary 
good  and  evil  which  they  may  produce,  force  a  triumph 
from  the  pure  devotion  to  truth,  in  spite  of  all  the  disgusts 
which  their  professional  tasks  involve  ;  still  patiently  endur- 
ing the  heavy  chains  which  bind  down  those  who  give  them- 
selves up  to  this  pursuit,  with  a  passion  which  resembles 
heroism. 

"The  catalogues  of  bibliotheques  fixes  (or  critical,  histor- 
ical, and  classified  accounts  of  writers)  have  engendered  that 
enormous  swarm  of  bibliographical  errors,  which  have  spread 
their  roots,  in  greater  or  less  quantities,  in  all  our  bibliograph- 
ers." He  has  here  furnished  a  long  list,  which  I  shall  pre- 
serve in  the  note.* 

*  Ge?sner — Simler — Bellarmin— L' Abbe" — Mabillon — Montfaucon — Mo- 
reri — Bayle — Baillet — Xiceron — Dupin — Cave — Warton — Casimir  Oudin — 
Le  Long — Goujet — Wolfius — John  Albert  Fabricius — Argelati — Tiraboschi 
—Nicholas  Antonio  — Walchius  —  Struvius — Brucker — Scheuchzer — Lin- 


A  BIBLIOGNOSTE. 


253 


The  list,  though  curious,  is  by  no  means  complete.  Snch 
are  the  men  of  whom  the  Abbe  Rive  speaks  with  more 
respect  than  his  accustomed  courtesy.  "  If  such,"  says  he, 
B  cannot  escape  from  errors,  who  shall  ?  I  have  only  marked 
them  out  to  prove  the  importance  of  bibliographical  history. 
A  writer  of  this  sort  must  occupy  himself  with  more  regard 
for  his  reputation  than  his  own  profit,  and  yield  himself  up 
entirely  to  the  study  of  books." 

The  mere  knowledge  of  books,  which  has  been  called  an 
erudition  of  title-pages,  may  be  sufficient  to  occupy  the  life 
of  some ;  and  while  the  wits  and  "  the  million  "  are  ridiculing 
these  hunters  of  editions,  who  force  their  passage  through 
secluded  spots,  as  well  as  course  in  the  open  fields,  it  will  be 
found  that  this  art  of  book-knowledge  may  turn  out  to  be  a 
very  philosophical  pursuit,  and  that  men  of  great  name  have 
devoted  themselves  to  labours,  more  frequently  contemned 
than  comprehended.  Apostolo  Zeno,  a  poet,  a  critic,  and  a 
true  man  of  letters,  considered  it  as  no  small  portion  of  his 
glory,  to  have  annotated  Fontanini,  wTho,  himself  an  eminent 
prelate,  had  passed  his  life  in  forming  his  Bibliotheca  Italiana. 
Zeno  did  not  consider  that  to  correct  errors  and  to  enrich  by 
information  this  catalogue  of  Italian  writers  was  a  mean  task. 
The  enthusiasm  of  the  Abbe  Rive  considered  bibliography 
as  a  sublime  pursuit,  exclaiming  on  Zeno's  commentary  on 
Fontanini — "  He  chained  together  the  knowledge  of  whole 
generations  for  posterity,  and  he  read  in  future  ages." 

There  are  few  things  by  which  we  can  so  well  trace  the 
history  of  the  human  mind  as  by  a  classed  catalogue,  with 
dates  of  the  first  publication  of  books  ;  even  the  relative  prices 
of  books  at  different  periods,  their  decline  and  then  their 
rise,  and  again  their  fall,  from  a  chapter  in  this  history  of  the 

naeus  —  Seguier — Haller — Adamson — Manget — Kestner — Eloy — Douglas — 
Weidler — Hailbronner — Montucla — Lalande — Bailly — Quadrio — Morhoff — 
Stollius —  Funccius  —  Schelhorn  —  Engles  —  Beyer — Gerdesius— Vogts — 
Freytag — David  Clement — Chevillier — Maittaire — Orlandi — Prosper  Mar- 
chand — Schoeplin — De  Boze — Abbe  Sallier — and  De  Saint  Leger. 


254 


A  BIBLIOGXOSTE. 


human  mind ;  we  become  critics  even  by  this  literary  chro- 
nology, and  this  appraisement  of  auctioneers.  The  favourite 
book  of  every  age  is  a  certain  picture  of  the  people.  The 
gradual  depreciation  of  a  great  author  marks  a  change  in 
knowledge  or  in  taste. 

But  it  is  imagined  that  we  are  not  interested  in  the  history 
of  indifferent  writers,  and  scarcely  in  that  of  the  secondary 
ones.  If  none  but  great  originals  should  claim  our  attention, 
in  the  course  of  two  thousand  years  we  should  not  count 
twenty  authors !  Every  book,  whatever  be  its  character, 
may  be  considered  as  a  new  experiment  made  by  the  human 
understanding  ;  and  as  a  book  is  a  sort  of  individual  repre- 
sentation, not  a  solitary  volume  exists  but  may  be  personified, 
and  described  as  a  human  being.  Hints  start  discoveries : 
they  are  usually  found  in  very  different  authors  who  could 
go  no  further ;  and  the  historian  of  obscure  books  is  often 
preserving  for  men  of  genius  indications  of  knowledge,  which 
without  his  intervention  we  should  not  possess !  Many  secrets 
we  discover  in  bibliography.  Great  writers,  unskilled  in  this 
science  of  books,  have  frequently  used  defective  editions,  as 
Hume  did  the  castrated  Whitelocke ;  or,  like  Robertson,  they 
are  ignorant  of  even  the  sources  of  the  knowledge  they  would 
give  the  public ;  or  they  compose  on  a  subject  which  too  late 
they  discover  had  been  anticipated.  Bibliography  will  show 
what  has  been  done,  and  suggest  to  our  invention  what  is 
wanted.  Many  have  often  protracted  their  journey  in  a 
road  which  had  already  been  worn  out  by  the  wheels  which 
had  traversed  it :  bibliography  unrolls  the  whole  map  of  the 
country  we  purpose  travelling  over — the  post-roads  and  the 
by-paths. 

Every  half-century,  indeed,  the  obstructions  multiply ;  and 
the  Edinburgh  prediction,  should  it  approximate  to  the  event 
it  has  foreseen,  may  more  reasonably  terrify  a  far  distant 
posterity.  Mazzuchelli  declared,  after  his  laborious  re- 
searches in  Italian  literature,  that  one  of  his  more  recent 
predecessors,  who  had  commenced  a  similar  work,  had  col- 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  255 


lected  notices  of  forty  thousand  writers — and  yet,  he  adds, 
my  work  must  increase  that  number  to  ten  thousand  more  ! 
Mazzuchelli  said  this  in  1753  ;  and  the  amount  of  nearly  a 
century  must  now  be  added,  for  the  presses  of  Italy  have  not 
been  inactive. 

But  the  literature  of  Germany,  of  France,  and  of  England, 
has  exceeded  the  multiplicity  of  the  productions  of  Italy,  and 
an  appalling  population  of  authors  swarm  before  the  imagina- 
tion. Hail  then  the  peaceful  spirit  of  the  literary  historian, 
which  sitting  amidst  the  night  of  time,  by  the  monuments  of 
genius,  trims  the  sepulchral  lamps  of  the  human  mind !  Hail 
to  the  literary  Reaumur,  who  by  the  clearness  of  his  glasses 
makes  even  the  minute  interesting,  and  reveals  to  us  the 
world  of  insects  !  These  are  guardian  spirits  who,  at  the 
close  of  every  century  standing  on  its  ascent,  trace  out  the 
old  roads  we  had  pursued,  and  with  a  lighter  line  indicate  the 
new  ones  which  are  opening,  from  the  imperfect  attempts 
and  even  the  errors  of  our  predecessors ! 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 

A  POLITICAL  SKETCH. 

Poland,  once  a  potent  and  magnificent  kingdom,  when  it 
sunk  into  an  elective  monarchy,  became  "  venal  thrice  an 
age."  That  country  must  have  exhibited  many  a  diplomatic 
scene  of  intricate  intrigue,  which  although  they  could  not  ap- 
pear in  its  public,  have  no  doubt  been  often  consigned  to  its 
secret,  history.  With  us  the  corruption  of  a  rotten  borough 
has  sometimes  exposed  the  guarded  proffer  of  one  party,  and 
the  dexterous  chaffering  of  the  other :  but  a  master-piece  of 
diplomatic  finesse  and  political  invention,  electioneering 
viewed  on  the  most  magnificent  scale,  with  a  kingdom  to  be 
canvassed,  and  a  crown  to  be  won  and  lost,  or  lost  and  won 
in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  exhibits  a  political  drama, 


25G    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


which,  for  the  honour  and  happiness  of  mankind,  is  of  rare 
and  strange  occurrence.  There  was  one  scene  in  this  drama, 
which  might  appear  somewhat  too  large  for  an  ordinary 
theatre;  the  actors  apparently  were  not  less  than  fifty  to  a 
hundred  thousand ;  twelve  vast  tents  were  raised  on  an  ex- 
tensive plain,  a  hundred  thousand  horses  were  in  the  environs 
— and  palatines  and  castellans,  the  ecclesiastical  orders,  with 
the  ambassadors  of  the  royal  competitors,  all  agitated  by  the 
ceaseless  motion  of  different  factions  during  the  six  weeks  of 
the  election,  and  of  many  preceding  months  of  preconcerted 
measures  and  vacillating  opinions,  now  were  all  solemnly 
assembled  at  the  diet. — Once  the  poet,  amidst  his  gigantic 
conception  of  a  scene,  resolved  to  leave  it  out : 

"  So  vast  a  throng  the  stage  can  ne'er  contain — 
Then  build  a  new,  or  act  it  in  a  plain  I " 

exclaimed  "  La  Mancha's  knight,"  kindling  at  a  scene  so 
novel  and  so  vast ! 

Such  an  electioneering  negotiation,  the  only  one  I  am 
acquainted  with,  is  opened  in  the  "  Discours  "  of  Choisnin, 
the  secretary  of  Montluc,  bishop  of  Valence,  the  confidential 
agent  of  Catharine  de'  Medici,  and  who  was  sent  to  intrigue 
at  the  Polish  diet,  to  obtain  the  crown  of  Poland  for  her  son 
the  Duke  of  Anjou,  afterwards  Henry  the  Third.  This  bold 
enterprise  at  first  seemed  hopeless,  and  in  its  progress  en- 
countered growing  obstructions  ;  but  Montluc  was  one  of  the 
most  finished  diplomatists  that  the  genius  of  the  Gallic  cabi- 
net ever  sent  forth.  He  was  nick-named  in  all  the  courts  of 
Europe,  from  the  circumstance  of  his  limping,  "  le  Boiteux : " 
our  political  bishop  was  in  cabinet  intrigues  the  Talleyrand 
of  his  age,  and  sixteen  embassies  to  Italy,  Germany,  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Turkey,  had  made  this  "  connoisseur  en 
hommes  "  an  extraordinary  politician ! 

Catharine  de'  Medici  was  infatuated  with  the  dreams  of 
judicial  astrology  ;  her  pensioned  oracles  had  declared  that 
she  should  live  to  see  each  of  her  sons  crowned,  by  which 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  257 


prediction  probably  they  had  only  purposed  to  flatter  her 
pride  and  her  love  of  dominion.  They,  however,  ended  in 
terrifying  the  credulous  queen  ;  and  she  dreading  to  witness 
a  throne,  in  France,  disputed  perhaps  by  fratricides,  anx- 
iously sought  a  separate  crown  for  each  of  her  three  sons. 
She  had  been  trifled  with  in  her  earnest  negotiations  with 
our  Elizabeth  ;  twice  had  she  seen  herself  baffled  in  her 
views  in  the  Dukes  of  Alencon  and  of  Anjou.  Catharine 
then  projected  a  new  empire  for  Anjou,  by  incorporating 
into  one  kingdom  Algiers,  Corsica,  and  Sardinia ;  but  the 
other  despot,  he  of  Constantinople,  Selim  the  Second,  dissi- 
pated the  brilliant  speculation  of  our  female  Machiavel. 
Charles  the  Ninth  was  sickly,  jealous,  and  desirous  of  remov- 
ing from  the  court  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  whom  two  victories 
had  made  popular,  though  he  afterwards  sunk  into  a  Sar- 
danapalus.  Montluc  penetrated  into  the  secret  wishes  of 
Catharine  and  Charles,  and  suggested  to  them  the  possibility 
of  encircling  the  brows  of  Anjou  with  the  diadem  of  Poland, 
the  Polish  monarch  then  being  in  a  state  of  visible  decline. 
The  project  was  approved  ;  and,  like  a  profound  politician, 
the  bishop  prepared  for  an  event  which  might  be  remote, 
and  always  problematical,  by  sending  into  Poland  a  natural 
son  of  his,  Balagny,  as  a  disguised  agent ;  his  youth,  his 
humble  rank,  and  his  love  of  pleasure,  would  not  create  any 
alarm  among  the  neighbouring  powers,  who  were  alike  on 
the  watch  to  snatch  the  expected  spoil  ;  but  as  it  was  neces- 
sary to  have  a  more  dexterous  politician  behind  the  curtain, 
he  recommended  his  secretary,  Choisnin,  as  a  travelling 
tutor  to  a  youth  who  appeared  to  want  one. 

Balagny  proceeded  to  Poland,  where,  under  the  veil  of 
dissipation,  and  in  the  midst  of  splendid  festivities,  with  his 
trusty  adjutant,  this  hair-brained  boy  of  revelry  began  to 
weave  those  intrigues  which  were  afterwards  to  be  knotted, 
or  untied,  by  Montluc  himself.  He  had  contrived  to  be  so 
little  suspected,  that  the  agent  of  the  emperor  had  often  dis- 
closed important  secrets  to  his  young  and  amiable  friend. 

VOL.  iv.  17 


258    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 

On  the  death  of  Sigisraond  Augustus,  Balagny,  leaving 
Choisnin  behind  to  trumpet  forth  the  virtues  of  Anjou,  has- 
tened to  Paris  to  give  an  account  of  all  which  he  had  seen 
or  heard.  But  poor  Choisnin  found  himself  in  a  dilemma 
among  those  who  had  so  long  listened  to  his  panegyrics  on 
the  humanity  and  meek  character  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  ; 
for  the  news  of  St.  Bartholomew's  massacre  had  travelled 
faster  than  the  post ;  and  Choisnin  complains  that  he  wa3 
now  treated  as  an  impudent  liar,  and  the  French  prince  as  a 
monster.  In  vain  he  assured  them  that  the  whole  was  an 
exaggerated  account,  a  mere  insurrection  of  the  people,  or 
the  effects  of  a  few  private  enmities,  praying  the  indignant 
Poles  to  suspend  their  decision  till  the  bishop  came :  "  At- 
tendez  le  Boiteux  !  "  cried  he,  in  agony. 

Meanwhile,  at  Paris,  the  choice  of  a  proper  person  for  this 
embassy  had  been  difficult  to  settle.  It  was  a  business  of 
intrigue  more  than  of  form,  and  required  an  orator  to  make 
speeches  and  addresses  in  a  sort  of  popular  assembly ;  for 
though  the  people,  indeed,  had  no  concern  in  the  diet,  yet 
the  greater  and  the  lesser  nobles  and  gentlemen,  all  electors, 
were  reckoned  at  one  hundred  thousand.  It  was  supposed 
that  a  lawyer  who  could  negotiate  in  good  Latin,  and  one,  as 
the  French  proverb  runs,  who  could  aller  et  parler,  would 
more  effectually  puzzle  their  heads,  and  satisfy  their  con- 
sciences to  vote  for  his  client.  Catharine  at  last  fixed  on 
Montluc  himself,  from  the  superstitious  prejudice,  which, 
however,  in  this  case  accorded  with  philosophical  experience, 
that  "  Montluc  had  ever  been  lucky  in  his  negotiations." 

Montluc  hastened  his  departure  from  Paris  ;  and  it  ap- 
pears that  our  political  bishop  had,  by  his  skilful  penetration 
into  the  French  cabinet,  foreseen  the  horrible  catastrophe 
which  occurred  very  shortly  after  he  had  left  it ;  for  he  had 
warned  the  Count  de  Rochefoucault  to  absent  himself ;  but 
this  lord,  like  so  many  others,  had  no  suspicions  of  the  per- 
fidious projects  of  Catharine  and  her  cabinet.  Montluc, 
however,  had  not  long  been  on  his  journey,  ere  the  news 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  259 


reached  him,  and  it  occasioned  innumerable  obstacles  in  his 
progress,  which  even  his  sagacity  had  not  calculated  on.  At 
Strasburgh  he  had  appointed  to  meet  some  able  coadjutors, 
among  whom  was  the  famous  Joseph  Scaliger ;  but  they 
were  so  terrified  by  les  Matinees  Parisiennes,  that  Scaliger 
flew  to  Geneva,  and  would  not  budge  out  of  that  safe  cor- 
ner :  and  the  others  ran  home,  not  imagining  that  Montluc 
would  venture  to  pass  through  Germany,  where  the  protest- 
ant  indignation  had  made  the  roads  too  hot  for  a  catholic 
bishop.  But  Montluc  had  set  his  cast  on  the  die.  He  had 
already  passed  through  several  hair-breadth  escapes  from 
the  stratagems  of  the  Guise  faction,  who  more  than  once 
attempted  to  hang  or  drown  the  bishop,  who,  they  cried  out, 
was  a  Calvinist ;  the  fears  and  jealousies  of  the  Guises  had 
been  roused  by  this  political  mission.  Among  all  these 
troubles  and  delays,  Montluc  was  most  affected  by  the  ru- 
mour that  the  election  was  on  the  point  of  being  made,  and 
that  the  plague  was  universal  throughout  Poland,  so  that  he 
must  have  felt  that  he  might  be  too  late  for  the  one,  and  too 
early  for  the  other. 

At  last  Montluc  arrived,  and  found  that  the  whole  weight 
of  this  negotiation  was  to  fall  on  his  single  shoulders  ;  and 
further,  that  he  was  to  sleep  every  night  on  a  pillow  of 
thorns.  Our  bishop  had  not  only  to  allay  the  ferment  of 
the  popular  spirit  of  the  evangelicals,  as  the  protestants  were 
then  called,  but  even  of  the  more  rational  catholics  of  Poland. 
He  had  also  to  face  those  haughty  and  feudal  lords,  of  whom 
each  considered  himself  the  equal  of  the  sovereign  whom  he 
created,  and  whose  avowed  principle  was,  and  many  were 
incorrupt,  that  their  choice  of  a  sovereign  should  be  regulated 
solely  by  the  public  interest ;  and  it  was  hardly  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  emperor,  the  czar,  and  the  king  of  Sweden, 
would  prove  unsuccessful  rivals  to  the  cruel,  and  voluptuous, 
and  bigoted  duke  of  Anjou,  whose  political  interests  were 
too  remote  and  novel  to  have  raised  any  faction  among  these 
independent  Poles. 


2G0    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


The  crafty  politician  had  the  art  of  dressing  himself  up  in 
all  the  winning  charms  of  candour  and  loyalty  ;  a  sweet  flow 
of  honeyed  words  melted  on  his  lips,  while  his  heart,  cold 
and  immovable  as  a  rock,  stood  unchanged  amidst  the  most 
unforeseen  difficulties. 

The  emperor  had  set  to  work  the  Abbe  Cyre  in  a  sort  of 
ambiguous  character,  an  envoy  for  the  nonce,  to  be  acknowl- 
edged or  disavowed  as  was  convenient ;  and  by  his  activity 
he  obtained  considerable  influence  among  the  Lithuanians, 
the  Wallachians,  and  nearly  all  Prussia,  in  favour  of  the 
Archduke  Ernest.  Two  Bohemians,  who  had  the  advantage 
of  speaking  the  Polish  language,  had  arrived  with  a  state 
and  magnificence  becoming  kings  rather  than  ambassadors. 
The  Muscovite  had  written  letters  full  of  golden  promises  to 
the  nobility,  and  was  supported  by  a  palatine  of  high  charac- 
ter ;  a  perpetual  peace  between  two  such  great  neighbours 
was  too  inviting  a  project  not  to  find  advocates ;  and  this 
party,  Choisnin  observes,  appeared  at  first  the  most  to  be 
feared.  The  King  of  Sweden  was  a  close  neighbour,  who 
had  married  the  sister  of  their  late  sovereign,  and  his  son 
urged  his  family  claims  as  superior  to  those  of  foreigners. 
Among  these  parties  was  a  patriotic  one,  who  were  desirous 
of  a  Pole  for  their  monarch  ;  a  king  of  their  father-land, 
speaking  their  mother-tongue,  one  who  would  not  strike  at 
the  independence  of  his  country,  but  preserve  its  integrity 
from  the  stranger.  This  popular  party  was  even  agreeable 
to  several  of  the  foreign  powers  themselves,  who  did  not 
like  to  see  a  rival  power  strengthening  itself  by  so  strict  a 
union  with  Poland ;  but  in  this  choice  of  a  sovereign  from 
among  themselves,  there  were  at  least  thirty  lords  who  equally 
thought  that  they  were  the  proper  wood  of  which  kings 
should  be  carved  out.  The  Poles  therefore  could  not  agree 
on  the  Pole  who  deserved  to  be  a  Piaste  ;  an  endearing  title 
for  a  native  monarch,  which  originated  in  the  name  of  the 
family  of  the  Piastis,  who  had  reigned  happily  over  the 
Polish  people  for  the  space  of  five  centuries  !    The  remem- 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  2G1 


brance  of  their  virtues  existed  in  the  minds  of  the  honest 
Poles  in  this  affectionate  title,  and  their  party  were  called 
the  Piastis. 

Montluc  had  been  deprived  of  the  assistance  he  had 
depended  on  from  many  able  persons,  whom  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew  had  frightened  away  from  every  French 
political  connection.  He  found  that  he  had  himself  only  to 
depend  on.  We  are  told  that  he  was  not  provided  with  the 
usual  means  which  are  considered  most  efficient  in  elections, 
nor  possessed  the  interest  nor  the  splendour  of  his  powerful 
competitors :  he  was  to  derive  all  his  resources  from  diplo- 
matic finesse.  The  various  ambassadors  had  fixed  and 
distant  residences,  that  they  might  not  hold  too  close  an 
intercourse  with  the  Polish  nobles.  Of  all  things,  he  was 
desirous  to  obtain  an  easy  access  to  these  chiefs,  that  he 
might  observe,  and  that  they  might  listen.  He  who  would 
seduce  by  his  own  ingenuity  must  come  in  contact  with  the 
object  he  would  corrupt.  Yet  Montluc  persisted  in  not  ap- 
proaching them  without  being  sought  after,  which  answered 
his  purpose  in  the  end.  One  favourite  argument  which  our 
Talleyrand  had  set  afloat,  was  to  show  that  all  the  benefits 
which  the  different  competitors  had  promised  to  the  Poles 
were  accompanied  by  other  circumstances  which  could  not 
fail  to  be  ruinous  to  the  country :  while  the  offer  of  his 
master,  whose  interests  were  remote,  could  not  be  adverse  to 
those  of  the  Polish  nation  :  so  that  much  good  might  be 
expected  from  him,  without  any  fear  of  accompanying  evil. 
Montluc  procured  a  clever  Frenchman  to  be  the  bearer  of 
his  first  dispatch,  in  Latin,  to  the  diet;  which  had  hardly 
assembled,  ere  suspicions  and  jealousies  were  already  break- 
ing out.  The  emperor's  ambassadors  had  offended  the  pride 
of  the  Polish  nobles  by  travelling  about  the  country  without 
leave,  and  resorting  to  the  infanta;  and  besides,  in  some 
intercepted  letters  the  Polish  nation  was  designated  as  gens 
barbara  et  gens  inepta.  "  I  do  not  think  that  the  said  letter 
was  really  written  by  the  said  ambassadors,  who  were  states 


262    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


men  too  politic  to  employ  such  unguarded  language,"  very 
ingenuously  writes  the  secretary  of  Montluc.  However,  it 
was  a  blow  levelled  at  the  imperial  ambassadors  ;  w7hile  the 
letter  of  the  French  bishop,  composed  "in  a  humble  and 
modest  style,"  began  to  melt  their  proud  spirits,  and  two 
thousand  copies  of  the  French  bishop's  letter  were  eagerly 
spread. 

"  But  this  good  fortune  did  not  last  more  than  four-and- 
twenty  hours,"  mournfully  writes  our  honest  secretary ;  "  for 
suddenly  the  news  of  the  fatal  day  of  St.  Bartholomew 
arrived,  and  every  Frenchman  was  detested." 

Montluc,  in  this  distress,  published  an  apology  for  les 
Matinees  Parisiennes,  which  he  reduced  to  some  excesses  of 
the  people,  the  result  of  a  conspiracy  plotted  by  the  protest- 
ants  ;  and  he  adroitly  introduced  as  a  personage  his  master 
Anjou,  declaring  that  u  he  scorned  to  oppress  a  party  whom 
he  had  so  often  conquered  with  sword  in  hand."  This 
pamphlet,  which  still  exists,  must  have  cost  the  good  bishop 
some  invention  ;  but  in  elections  the  lie  of  the  moment  serves 
a  purpose  ;  and  although  Montluc  was  in  due  time  bitterly 
recriminated  on,  still  the  apology  served  to  divide  public 
opinion. 

Montluc  was  a  whole  cabinet  to  himself:  he  dispersed 
another  tract  in  the  character  of  a  Polish  gentleman,  in 
which  the  French  interests  were  urged  by  such  arguments, 
that  the  leading  chiefs  never  met  without  disputing;  and 
Montluc  now  found  that  he  had  succeeded  in  creating  a 
French  party.  The  Austrian  then  employed  a  real  Polish 
gentleman  to  write  for  his  party  ;  but  this  was  too  genuine  a 
production,  for  the  writer  wrote  too  much  in  earnest ;  and  in 
politics  we  must  not  be  in  a  passion. 

The  mutual  jealousies  of  each  party  assisted  the  views  of 
our  negotiator ;  they  would  side  with  him  against  each  other. 
The  archduke  and  the  czar  opposed  the  Turk ;  the  Musco- 
vite could  not  endure  that  Sweden  should  be  aggrandized 
by  this  new  crown ;  and  Denmark  was  still  more  uneasy. 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  263 


Montluc  had  discovered  how  every  party  had  its  vulnerable 
point,  by  which  it  could  be  managed.  The  cards  had  now 
got  fairly  shuffled,  and  he  depended  on  his  usual  good  play. 

Our  bishop  got  hold  of  a  palatine  to  write  for  the  French 
cause  in  the  vernacular  tongue ;  and  appears  to  have  held  a 
more  mysterious  intercourse  with  another  palatine,  Albert 
Lasky.  Mutual  accusations  were  made  in  the  open  diet : 
the  Poles  accused  some  Lithuanian  lords  of  having  con- 
tracted certain  engagements  with  the  czar ;  these  in  return 
accused  the  Poles,  and  particularly  this  Lasky,  with  being 
corrupted  by  the  gold  of  France.  Another  circumstance 
afterwards  arose  ;  the  Spanish  ambassador  had  forty  thou- 
sand thalers  sent  to  him,  but  which  never  passed  the  fron- 
tiers, as  this  fresh  supply  arrived  too  late  for  the  election. 
"I  believe,"  writes  our  secretary  with  great  simplicity, 
"  that  this  money  was  only  designed  to  distribute  among  the 
trumpeters  and  the  tabourines."  The  usual  expedient  in 
contested  elections  was  now  evidently  introduced ;  our  sec- 
retary acknowledging  that  Montluc  daily  acquired  new 
supporters,  because  he  did  not  attempt  to  gain  them  over 
merely  ly  promises — resting  his  whole  cause  on  this  argu- 
ment, that  the  interest  of  the  nation  was  concerned  in  the 
French  election. 

Still  would  ill  fortune  cross  our  crafty  politician  when 
every  thing  was  proceeding  smoothly.  The  massacre  was 
refreshed  with  more  damning  particulars  ;  some  letters  were 
forged,  and  others  were  but  too  true ;  all  parties,  with  rival 
intrepidity,  were  carrying  on  a  complete  scene  of  deception. 
A  rumour  spread  that  the  French  king  disavowed  his  accred- 
ited agent,  and  apologized  to  the  emperor  for  having  yielded 
to  the  importunities  of  a  political  speculator,  whom  he  was 
now  resolved  to  recall.  This  somewhat  paralyzed  the  exer- 
tions of  those  palatines  who  had  involved  themselves  in  the 
intrigues  of  Montluc,  who  was  now  forced  patiently  to  wait 
for  the  arrival  of  a  courier  with  renewed  testimonials  of  his 
diplomatic  character  from  the  French  court.    A  great  odium 


264    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


was  cast  on  the  French  in  the  course  of  this  negotiation  by 
a  distribution  of  prints,  which  exposed  the  most  inventive 
cruelties  practised  by  the  Catholics  on  the  Reformed ;  such 
as  women  cleaved  in  half*  in  the  act  of  attempting  to  snatch 
their  children  from  their  butchers  ;  while  Charles  the  Ninth 
and  the  Duke  of  Anjou  were  hideously  represented  in  their 
persons,  and  as  spectators  of  such  horrid  tragedies,  with 
words  written  in  labels,  complaining  that  the  executioners 
were  not  zealous  enough  in  this  holy  work.  These  prints, 
accompanied  by  libels  and  by  horrid  narratives,  inflamed  the 
popular  indignation,  and  more  particularly  the  women,  who 
were  affected  to  tears,  as  if  these  horrid  scenes  had  been 
passing  before  their  eyes. 

Montluc  replied  to  the  libels  as  fast  as  they  appeared, 
while  he  skilfully  introduced  the  most  elaborate  panegyrics 
on  the  Duke  of  Anjou  ;  and  in  return  for  the  caricatures,  he 
distributed  two  portraits  of  the  king  and  the  duke,  to  show 
the  ladies,  if  not  the  diet,  that  neither  of  these  princes  had 
such  ferocious  and  inhuman  faces.  Such  are  the  small 
means  by  which  the  politician  condescends  to  work  his  great 
designs  ;  and  the  very  means  by  which  his  enemies  thought 
they  should  ruin  his  cause,  Montluc  adroitly  turned  to  his 
own  advantage.  Any  thing  of  instant  occurrence  serves 
electioneering  purposes,  and  Montluc  eagerly  seized  this 
favourable  occasion  to  exhaust  his  imagination  on  an  ideal 
sovereign,  and  to  hazard,  with  address,  anecdotes,  whose 
authenticity  he  could  never  have  proved,  till  he  perplexed 
even  unwilling  minds  to  be  uncertain  whether  that  intolerant 
and  inhuman  duke  was  not  the  most  heroic  and  most  mer- 
ciful of  princes.  It  is  probable  that  the  Frenchman  abused 
even  the  license  of  the  French  eloge,  for  a  noble  Pole  told 
Montluc  that  he  was  always  amplifying  his  duke  with  such 
ideal  greatness,  and  attributing  to  him  such  immaculate  pur- 
ity of  sentiment,  that  it  was  inferred  there  was  no  man  in 
Poland  who  could  possibly  equal  him  ;  and  that  his  declara- 
tion, that  the  duke  was  not  desirous  of  reigning  over  Poland 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  2G5 


to  possess  the  wealth  and  grandeur  of  the  kingdom,  and  that 
he  was  solely  ambitious  of  the  honour  to  be  the  head  of  such 
a  great  and  virtuous  nobility,  had  offended  many  lords,  who 
did  not  believe  that  the  duke  sought  the  Polish  crown  merely 
to  be  the  sovereign  of  a  virtuous  people. 

These  Polish  statesmen  appear,  indeed,  to  have  been  more 
enlightened  than  the  subtle  politician  perhaps  calculated  on ; 
for  when  Montluc  was  over  anxious  to  exculpate  the  Duke 
of  Anjou  from  having  been  an  actor  in  the  Parisian  massacre, 
a  noble  Pole  observed,  "  That  he  need  not  lose  his  time  at 
framing  any  apologies ;  for  if  he  could  prove  that  it  was  the 
interest  of  the  country  that  the  duke  ought  to  be  elected  their 
king,  it  was  all  that  was  required.  His  cruelty,  were  it  true, 
would  be  no  reason  to  prevent  his  election,  for  we  have 
nothing  to  dread  from  it :  once  in  our  kingdom,  he  will  have 
more  reason  to  fear  us  than  we  him,  should  he  ever  attempt 
our  lives,  our  property,  or  our  liberty." 

Another  Polish  lord,  whose  scruples  were  as  pious  as  his 
patriotism  was  suspicious,  however  observed  that,  in  his  con- 
ferences with  the  French  bishop,  the  bishop  had  never  once 
mentioned  God,  whom  all  parties  ought  to  implore  to  touch 
the  hearts  of  the  electors,  in  their  choice  of  God's  "  anointed." 
Montluc  might  have  felt  himself  unexpectedly  embarrassed 
at  the  religious  scruples  of  this  lord,  but  the  politician  was 
never  at  a  fault.  "  Speaking  to  a  man  of  letters,  as  his 
lordship  was,"  replied  the  French  bishop,  "  it  was  not  for 
him  to  remind  his  lordship  what  he  so  well  knew ;  but  since 
he  had  touched  on  the  subject,  he  would,  however,  say,  that 
were  a  sick  man  desirous  of  having  a  physician,  the  friend 
who  undertook  to  procure  one  would  not  do  his  duty  should 
he  say  it  was  necessary  to  call  in  one  whom  God  had  chosen 
to  restore  his  health ;  but  another  who  should  say  that  the 
most  learned  and  skilful  is  he  whom  God  has  chosen,  would 
oe  doing  the  best  for  the  patient,  and  evince  most  judgment. 
By  a  parity  of  reason  Ave  must  believe  that  God  will  not 
send  an  angel  to  point  out  the  man  whom  he  would  have  his 


I 


2G6    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


anointed;  sufficient  for  us  that  God  has  given  us  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  requisites  of  a  good  king;  and  if  the  Polish 
gentlemen  choose  such  a  sovereign,  it  will  be  him  whom  God 
has  chosen."  This  shrewd  argument  delighted  the  Polish 
lord,  who  repeated  the  story  in  different  companies,  to  the 
honour  of  the  bishop.  "  And  in  this  manner,"  adds  the 
secretary  with  great  naivete,  "  did  the  sieur,  strengthened  by 
good  arguments,  divulge  his  opinions,  which  were  received 
by  many,  and  run  from  hand  to  hand." 

Montluc  had  his  inferior  manoeuvres.  He  had  to  equipoise 
the  opposite  interests  of  the  Catholics  and  the  Evangelists,  or 
the  Reformed  :  it  was  mingling  fire  and  water  without  suffer- 
ing them  to  hiss,  or  to  extinguish  one  another.  When  the 
imperial  ambassadors  gave  fetes  to  the  higher  nobility  only, 
they  consequently  offended  the  lesser.  The  Frenchman  gave 
no  banquets,  but  his  house  was  open  to  all  at  all  times,  who 
were  equally  welcome.  "You  will  see  that  the  fetes  of  the 
imperialists  will  do  them  more  harm  than  good,"  observed 
Montluc  to  his  secretary. 

Having  gained  over  by  every  possible  contrivance  a 
number  of  the  Polish  nobles,  and  showered  his  courtesies 
on  those  of  the  inferior  orders,  at  length  the  critical  moment 
approached,  and  the  finishing  hand  was  to  be  put  to  the 
work.  Poland,  with  the  appearance  of  a  popular  govern- 
ment, was  a  singular  aristocracy  of  a  hundred  thousand 
electors,  consisting  of  the  higher  and  the  lower  nobility,  and 
the  gentry ;  the  people  had  no  concern  with  the  government. 
Yet  still  it  was  to  be  treated  by  the  politician  as  a  popular 
government,  where  those  who  possessed  the  greatest  influence 
over  such  large  assemblies  were  orators,  and  he  who  de- 
livered himself  with  the  most  fluency,  and  the  most  pertinent 
arguments,  would  infallibly  bend  every  heart  to  the  point  he 
washed.  The  French  bishop  depended  greatly  on  the  effect 
which  his  oration  was  to  produce  when  the  ambassadors 
were  respectively  to  be  heard  before  the  assembled  diet;  the 
great  and  concluding  act  of  so  many  tedious  and  difficult 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  9G7 


negotiations — "which  had  cost  my  master,"  writes  the  in- 
genious secretary,  "  six  months'  daily  and  nightly  labours ; 
he  had  never  been  assisted  or  comforted  by  any  but  his  poor 
servants  ;  and  in  the  course  of  these  six  months  had  written 
ten  reams  of  paper,  a  thing  which  for  forty  years  he  had  not 
used  himself  to." 

Every  ambassador  was  now  to  deliver  an  oration  before 
the  assembled  electors,  and  thirty-two  copies  were  to  be 
printed  to  present  one  to  each  palatine,  who  in  his  turn  was 
to  communicate  it  to  his  lords.  But  a  fresh  difficulty 
occurred  to  the  French  negotiator;  as  he  trusted  greatly 
to  his  address  influencing  the  multitude,  and  creating  a 
popular  opinion  in  his  favour,  he  regretted  to  find  that  the 
imperial  ambassador  would  deliver  his  speech  in  the  Bohe- 
mian language,  so  that  he  would  be  understood  by  the  greater 
part  of  the  assembly ;  a  considerable  advantage  over  Mont- 
luc,  who  could  only  address  them  in  Latin.  The  inventive 
genius  of  the  French  bishop  resolved  on  two  things  which 
had  never  before  been  practised :  first,  to  have  his  Latin 
translated  into  the  vernacular  idiom ;  and,  secondly,  to  print 
an  edition  of  fifteen  hundred  copies  in  both  languages,  and 
thus  to  obtain  a  vast  advantage  over  the  other  ambassadors 
with  their  thirty-two  manuscript  copies,  of  which  each  copy 
was  used  to  be  read  to  1200  persons.  The  great  difficulty 
was  to  get  it  secretly  translated  and  printed.  This  fell  to  the 
management  of  Choisnin,  the  secretary.  He  set  off  to  the 
castle  of  the  palatine,  Solikotski,  who  was  deep  in  the  French 
interest ;  Solikotski  dispatched  the  version  in  six  days. 
Hastening  with  the  precious  MS.  to  Cracow,  Choisnin  flew 
to  a  trusty  printer,  with  whom  he  was  connected ;  the  sheets 
were  deposited  every  night  at  Choisnin's  lodgings,  and  at  the 
end  of  a  fortnight  the  diligent  secretary  conducted  the  1500 
copies  in  secret  triumph  to  Warsaw. 

Yet  this  glorious  labour  was  not  ended ;  Montluc  was  in 
no  haste  to  deliver  his  wonder-working  oration,  on  which  the 
fate  of  a  crown  seemed  to  depend.    When  his  turn  came  to 


2G8    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


be  heard,  he  suddenly  fell  sick ;  for  the  fact  was,  that  he 
wished  to  speak  last,  which  would  give  him  the  advantage 
of  replying  to  any  objection  raised  by  his  rivals,  and  admit 
also  of  an  attack  on  their  weak  points. 

He  contrived  to  obtain  copies  of  their  harangues,  and  dis- 
covered five  points  which  struck  at  the  French  interest.  Our 
poor  bishop  had  now  to  sit  up  through  the  night  to  rewrite 
five  leaves  of  his  printed  oration,  and  cancel  five  which  had 
been  printed ;  and  worse  !  he  had  to  get  them  by  heart,  and 
to  have  them  translated  and  inserted,  by  employing  twenty 
scribes  day  and  night.  "  It  is  scarcely  credible  what  my 
master  went  through  about  this  time,"  saith  the  historian  of 
his  "  gestes." 

The  council  or  diet  was  held  in  a  vast  plain.  Twelve 
pavilions  were  raised  to  receive  the  Polish  nobility  and  the 
ambassadors.  One  of  a  circular  form  was  supported  by  a 
single  mast,  and  was  large  enough  to  contain  6000  persons, 
without  any  one  approaching  the  mast  nearer  than  by  twenty 
steps,  leaving  this  space  void  to  preserve  silence  ;  the  dif- 
ferent orders  were  placed  around ;  the  archbishop  and  the 
bishops,  the  palatines,  the  castellans,  each  according  to  their 
rank.  During  the  six  weeks  of  the  sittings  of  the  diet, 
100,000  horses  were  in  the  environs,  yet  forage  and  every 
sort  of  provisions  abounded.  There  were  no  disturbances, 
not  a  single  quarrel  occurred,  although  there  wanted  not  in 
that  meeting  for  enmities  of  long  standing.  It  was  strange, 
and  even  awful,  to  view  such  a  mighty  assembly  preserving 
the  greatest  order,  and  every  one  seriously  intent  on  this 
solemn  occasion. 

At  length  the  elaborate  oration  was  delivered :  it  lasted 
three  hours,  and  Choisnin  assures  us  not  a  single  auditor 
felt  weary.  "  A  cry  of  joy  broke  out  from  the  tent,  and 
was  reechoed  through  the  plain,  when  Montluc  ceased:  it 
was  a  public  acclamation ;  and  had  the  election  been  fixed 
for  that  moment,  when  all  hearts  were  warm,  surely  t he 
duke  had  been  chosen  without  a  dissenting  voice."  Thus 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  269 


writes,  in  rapture,  the  ingenuous  secretary ;  and  in  the  spirit 
of  the  times  communicates  a  delightful  augury  attending  this 
speech,  by  which  evidently  was  foreseen  its  happy  termina- 
tion. "Those  who  disdain  all  things  will  take  this  to  be 
a  mere  invention  of  mine,"  says  honest  Choisnin :  "  but  true 
it  is,  that  while  the  said  sieitr  delivered  his  harangue,  a  lark 
was  seen  all  the  while  upon  the  mast  of  the  pavilion,  singing 
and  warbling,  which  was  remarked  by  a  great  number  of 
lords,  because  the  lark  is  accustomed  only  to  rest  itself  on 
the  earth:  the  most  impartial  confessed  this  to  be  a  good 
augury.*  Also  it  was  observed,  that  when  the  other  am- 
bassadors were  speaking,  a  hare,  and  at  another  time  a  hog, 
ran  through  the  tent;  and  when  the  Swedish  ambassador 
spoke,  the  great  tent  fell  half-way  down.  This  lark  singing 
all  the  while  did  no  little  good  to  our  cause ;  for  many  of  the 
nobles  and  gentry  noted  this  curious  particularity,  because 
when  a  thing  which  does  not  commonly  happen  occurs  in  a 
public  affair,  such  appearances  give  rise  to  hopes  either  of 
good  or  of  evil." 

The  singing  of  this  lark  in  favour  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou 
is  not  so  evident  as  the  cunning  trick  of  the  other  French 
agent,  the  political  Bishop  of  Valence,  who  now  reaped  the 
full  advantage  of  his  1500  copies  over  the  thirty-two  of  his 
rivals.  Every  one  had  the  French  one  in  hand  or  read  it  to 
his  friends ;  while  the  others,  in  manuscript,  were  confined  to 
a  very  narrow  circle. 

The  period  from  the  10th  of  April  to  the  6th  of  May, 
when  they  proceeded  to  the  election,  proved  to  be  an  interval 
of  infinite  perplexities,  troubles,  and  activity ;  it  is  probable 
that  the  secret  history  of  this  period  of  the  negotiations  was 
never  written.  The  other  ambassadors  were  for  protracting 
the  election,  perceiving  the  French  interest  prevalent :  but 

*  Our  honest  secretary  reminds  me  of  a  passage  in  GeofFroy  of  Mon- 
mouth, who  says,  "  at  this  place  an  eagle  spoke  while  the  wall  of  the  town 
tfas  building;  and  indeed  I  should  not  have  failed  transmitting  die  speech  to 
posterity  had  I  thought  it  true  as  the  rest  of  the  history." 


270    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 

delay  would  not  serve  the  purpose  of  Montluc,  he  not  being 
so  well  provided  with  friends  and  means  on  the  spot  as  the 
others  were.  The  public  opinion  which  he  had  succeeded  in 
creating,  by  some  unforeseen  circumstance,  might  change. 

During  this  interval,  the  bishop  had  to  put  several  agents 
of  the  other  parties  hors  de  combat.  He  got  rid  of  a  formi- 
dable adversary  in  the  Cardinal  Commendon,  an  agent  of  the 
pope's,  whom  he  proved  ought  not  to  be  present  at  the  elec- 
tion, and  the  cardinal  was  ordered  to  take  his  departure.  A 
bullying  colonel  was  set  upon  the  French  negotiator,  and 
went  about  from  tent  to  tent  with  a  list  of  the  debts  of  the 
Duke  of  Anjou,  to  show  that  the  nation  could  expect  nothing 
profitable  from  a  ruined  spendthrift.  The  page  of  a  Polish 
count  flew  to  Montluc  for  protection,  entreating  permission  to 
accompany  the  bishop  on  his  return  to  Paris.  The  servants 
of  the  count  pursued  the  page  ;  but  this  young  gentleman 
had  so  insinuated  himself  into  the  favour  of  the  bishop,  that 
he  was  suffered  to  remain.  The  next  day  the  page  desired 
Montluc  would  grant  him  the  full  liberty  of  his  religion  being 
an  evangelical,  that  he  might  communicate  this  to  his  friends, 
and  thus  fix  them  to  the  French  party.  Montluc  was  too 
penetrating  for  this  young  political  agent,  whom  he  discov- 
ered to  be  a  spy,  and  the  pursuit  of  his  fellows  to  have  been 
a  farce ;  he  sent  the  page  back  to  his  master,  the  evangelical 
count,  observing  that  such  tricks  were  too  gross  to  be  played 
on  one  who  had  managed  affairs  in  all  the  courts  of  Europe 
before  he  came  into  Poland. 

Another  alarm  was  raised  by  a  letter  from  the  grand  vizier 
of  Selim  the  Second,  addressed  to  the  diet,  in  which  he  re- 
quested that  they  would  either  choose  a  king  from  among 
themselves,  or  elect  the  brother  of  the  king  of  France. 
Some  zealous  Frenchman  at  the  Sublime  Porte  had  offi- 
ciously procured  this  recommendation  from  the  enemy  of 
Christianity ;  but  an  alliance  with  Mahometanism  did  no  ser- 
vice to  Montluc,  either  with  the  catholics  or  the  evangelicals. 
The  bishop  was  in  despair,  and  thought  that  his  handy-work 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  27] 


of  six  months'  toil  and  trouble  was  to  be  shook  into  pieces  in 
an  hour.  Montluc,  being  shown  the  letter,  instantly  insisted 
that  it  was  a  forgery,  designed  to  injure  his  master  the  duke. 
The  letter  was  attended  by  some  suspicious  circumstances ; 
and  the  French  bishop,  quick  at  expedients,  snatched  at  an 
advantage  which  the  politician  knows  how  to  lay  hold  of  in 
the  chapter  of  accidents.  "  The  letter  was  not  sealed  with 
the  golden  seal,  nor  inclosed  in  a  silken  purse  or  cloth  of 
gold ;  and  further,  if  they  examined  the  translation,"  he 
said,  "  they  would  find  that  it  was  not  written  on  Turkish 
paper."  This  was  a  piece  of  the  sieur's  good  fortune,  for  the 
letter  was  not  forged ;  but  owing  to  the  circumstance  that  the 
boyar  of  Wallachia  had  taken  out  t^ie  letter  to  send  a  trans- 
lation with  it,  which  the  vizier  had  omitted,  it  arrived  without 
its  usual  accompaniments ;  and  the  courier,  when  inquired 
after,  was  kept  out  of  the  way :  so  that,  in  a  few  days,  noth- 
ing more  was  heard  of  the  great  vizier's  letter.  "  Such  was 
our  fortunate  escape,"  says  the  secretary,  "  from  the  friendly 
but  fatal  interference  of  the  sultan,  than  which  the  sieur 
dreaded  nothing  so  much." 

Many  secret  agents  of  the  different  powers  were  spinning 
their  dark  intrigues ;  and  often,  when  discovered  or  discon- 
certed, the  creatures  were  again  at  their  "  dirty  work."  These 
agents  were  conveniently  disavowed  or  acknowledged  by  their 
employers.  The  Abbe  Cyre  was  an  active  agent  of  the 
emperor's,  and  though  not  publicly  accredited  was  still  hover- 
ing about.  In  Lithuania  he  had  contrived  matters  so  well 
as  to  have  gained  over  that  important  province  for  the  arch- 
duke ;  and  was  passing  through  Prussia  to  hasten  to  com- 
municate with  the  emperor,  but  "  some  honest  men,"  quelques 
bons  personnages,  says  the  French  secretary,  and  no  doubt 
some  good  friends  of  his  master,  "  took  him  by  surprise,  and 
laid  him  up  safely  in  the  castle  of  Marienburgh,  where  truly 
he  was  a  little  uncivilly  used  by  the  soldiers,  who  rifled  his 
portmanteau  and  sent  us  his  papers,  when  we  discovered  all 
his  foul  practices."    The  emperor,  it  seems,  was  angry  at  the 


272    SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


arrest  of  his  secret  agent ;  but  as  no  one  had  the  power  of 
releasing  the  Abbe  Cyre  at  that  moment,  what  with  receiving 
remonstrances  and  furnishing  replies,  the  time  passed  away, 
and  a  very  troublesome  adversary  was  in  safe  custody  during 
the  election.  The  dissensions  between  the  catholics  and  the 
evangelicals  were  always  on  the  point  of  breaking  out ;  but 
Montluc  succeeded  in  quieting  these  inveterate  parties  by 
terrifying  their  imaginations  with  sanguinary  civil  wars,  and 
invasions  of  the  Turks  and  the  Tartars.  He  satisfied  the  catho- 
lics with  the  hope  that  time  would  put  an  end  to  heresy,  and 
the  evangelicals  were  glad  to  obtain  a  truce  from  persecution. 
The  day  before  the  election  Montluc  found  himself  so  confi- 
dent, that  he  dispatched  a  courier  to  the  French  court,  and 
expressed  himself  in  the  true  style  of  a  speculative  politician, 
that  des  douze  tables  du  Damier  nous  en  avons  les  Neufs  as- 
sures. 

There  were  preludes  to  the  election ;  and  the  first  was 
probably  in  acquiescence  with  a  saturnalian  humour  preva- 
lent in  some  countries,  where  the  lower  orders  are  only 
allowed  to  indulge  their  taste  for  the  mockery  of  the  great 
at  stated  times  and  on  fixed  occasions.  A  droll  scene  of  a 
mock  election,  as  well  as  combat,  took  place  between  the 
numerous  Polish  pages,  who,  saith  the  grave  secretary,  are 
still  more  mischievous  than  our  own :  these  elected  among 
themselves  four  competitors,  made  a  senate  to  burlesque  the 
diet,  and  went  to  loggerheads.  Those  who  represented  the 
archduke  were  well  beaten,  the  Swede  was  hunted  down, 
and  for  the  Piastis,  they  seized  on  a  cart  belonging  to  a 
gentleman,  laden  with  provisions,  broke  it  to  pieces,  and 
burnt  the  axle-tree,  which  in  that  country  is  called  a  piasti, 
and  cried  out  The  piasti  is  burnt !  nor  could  the  senators  at 
the  diet  that  day  command  any  order  or  silence.  The  French 
party  wore  white  handkerchiefs  in  their  hats,  and  they  were 
so  numerous  as  to  defeat  the  others. 

The  next  day  however  opened  a  different  scene  ;•  "  the 
nobles  prepared  to  deliberate,  and  each  palatine  in  his  quar- 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY.  273 


ters  was  with  his  companions  on  their  knees,  and  many  with 
tears  in  their  eyes,  chanting  a  hymn  to  the  Holy  Ghost ;  it 
must  be  confessed,  that  this  looked  like  a  work  of  God,"  says 
our  secretary,  who  probably  understood  the  manoeuvring  of 
the  mock  combat,  or  the  mock  prayers,  much  better  than  we 
may.  Every  thing  tells  at  an  election,  burlesque  or  so- 
lemnity ! 

The  election  took  place,  and  the  Duke  of  Anjou  was  pro- 
claimed King  of  Poland — but  the  troubles  of  Montluc  did  not 
terminate.  When  they  presented  certain  articles  for  his 
signature,  the  bishop  discovered  that  these  had  undergone 
material  alterations  from  the  proposals  submitted  to  him  be- 
fore the  proclamation  ;  these  alterations  referred  to  a  dis- 
avowal of  the  Parisian  massacre ;  the  punishment  of  its 
authors,  and  toleration  in  religion.  Montluc  refused  to  sign, 
and  cross-examined  his  Polish  friends  about  the  original  pro- 
posals; one  party  agreed  that  some  things  had  been  changed, 
but  that  they  were  too  trivial  to  lose  a  crown  for ;  others 
declared  that  the  alterations  were  necessary  to  allay  the 
fears,  or  secure  the  safety,  of  the  people.  Our  Gallic  diplo- 
matist was  outwitted,  and  after  all  his  intrigues  and  cunning, 
he  found  that  the  crown  of  Poland  was  only  to  be  delivered 
on  conditional  terms. 

In  this  dilemma,  with  a  crown  depending  on  a  stroke  of 
his  pen, — remonstrating,  entreating,  arguing,  and  still  delay- 
ing, like  "Ancient  Pistol "  swallowing  his  leek,  he  witnessed 
with  alarm  some  preparations  for  a  new  election,  and  his 
rivals  on  the  watch  with  their  protests.  Montluc,  in  despair, 
signed  the  conditions — "  assured,  however,"  says  the  secre- 
tary, who  groans  over  this  finale,  "  that  when  the  elected 
monarch  should  arrive,  the  states  would  easily  be  induced  to 
correct  them,  and  place  things  in  statu  quo,  as  before  the 
proclamation.  I  was  not  a  witness,  being  then  dispatched  to 
Paris  with  the  joyful  news,  but  I  heard  that  the  sieur  evesque 
it  was  thought  would  have  died  in  this  agony,  of  being  re- 
duced to  the  hard  necessity  either  to  sign,  or  to  lose  the  fruits 

VOL.  IV.  18 


274   SECRET  HISTORY  OF  AN  ELECTIVE  MONARCHY. 


of  his  labours.  The  conditions  were  afterwards  for  a  long 
while  disputed  in  France."  De  Thou  informs  us,  in  lib.  lvii. 
of  his  history,  that  Montluc  after  signing  these  conditions 
wrote  to  his  master,  that  he  was  not  bound  by  them,  because 
they  did  not  concern  Poland  in  general,  and  that  they  had 
compelled  him  to  sign,  what  at  the  same  time  he  had  in- 
formed them  his  instructions  did  not  authorize.  Such  was 
the  true  Jesuitic  conduct  of  a  gray-haired  politician,  who  at 
length  found,  that  honest  plain  sense  could  embarrass  and 
finally  entrap  the  creature  of  the  cabinet,  the  artificial  genius 
of  diplomatic  finesse. 

The  secretary,  however,  views  nothing  but  his  master's 
glory  in  the  issue  of  this  most  difficult  negotiation ;  and  the 
triumph  of  Anjou  over  the  youthful  archduke,  whom  the 
Poles  might  have  moulded  to  their  will,  and  over  the  King 
of  Sweden,  who  claimed  the  crown  by  his  queen's  side,  and 
had  offered  to  unite  his  part  of  Livonia  with  that  which  the 
Poles  possessed.  He  labours  hard  to  prove  that  the  palatines 
and  the  castellans  were  not  pratiques,  i.  e.  had  their  votes 
bought  up  by  Montluc,  as  was  reported ;  from  their  number 
and  their  opposite  interests,  he  confesses  that  the  sieur  evesque 
slept  little,  while  in  Poland,  and  that  he  only  gained  over  the 
hearts  of  men  by  that  natural  gift  of  God,  which  acquired 
him  the  title  of  the  happy  ambassador.  He  rather  seems  to 
regret  that  France  was  not  prodigal  of  her  purchase-money, 
than  to  affirm  that  all  palatines  were  alike  scrupulous  of  their 
honour. 

One  more  fact  may  close  this  political  sketch ;  a  lesson  of 
the  nature  of  court  gratitude  !  The  French  court  affected  to 
receive  Choisnin  with  favour,  but  their  suppressed  discontent 
was  reserved  for  "the  happy  ambassador!"  Affairs  had 
changed;  Charles  the  Ninth  was  dying,  and  Catharine  de' 
Medici  in  despair  for  a  son,  to  whom  she  had  sacrificed  all ; 
while  Anjou,  already  immersed  in  the  wantonness  of  youth 
and  pleasure,  considered  his  elevation  to  the  throne  of  Poland 
as  anNexile  which  separated  him  from  his  depraved  enjoy- 


BUILDINGS  IN  THE  METROPOLIS,  ETC. 


275 


ments  !  Montluc  was  rewarded  only  by  incurring  disgrace  ; 
Catharine  de'  Medici  and  the  Duke  of  Anjou  now  looked 
coldly  on  him,  and  expressed  their  dislike  of  his  successful 
mission.  "  The  mother  of  kings,"  as  Choisnin  designates 
Catharine  de'  Medici,  to  whom  he  addresses  his  Memoirs, 
with  the  hope  of  awakening  her  recollections  of  the  zeal,  the 
genius,  and  the  success  of  his  old  master,  had  no  longer  any 
use  for  her  favourite ;  and  Montluc  found,  as  the  commen- 
tator of  Choisnin  expresses  in  a  few  words,  an  important 
truth  in  political  morality,  that  "  at  court  the  interest  of  the 
moment  is  the  measure  of  its  affections  and  its  hatreds."  * 


BUILDINGS  IN  THE  METROPOLIS,  AND  RESIDENCE 
IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

Recently  more  than  one  of  our  learned  judges  from  the 
bench  have  perhaps  astonished  their  auditors  by  impressing 
them  with  an  old-fashioned  notion  of  residing  more  on  their 
estates  than  the  fashionable  modes  of  life,  and  the  esprit  de 
societe,  now  overpowering  all  other  esprit,  will  ever  admit. 
These  opinions  excited  my  attention  to  a  curious  circum- 
stance in  the  history  of  our  manners — the  great  anxiety  of 
ur  government,  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth  till  much  later 
an  those  of  Charles  the  Second,  to  preserve  the  kingdom 
from  the  evils  of  an  overgrown  metropolis.  The  people 
themselves  indeed  participated  in  the  same  alarm  at  the 
growth  of  the  city ;  while,  however,  they  themselves  were 
Derpetuating  the  grievance  which  they  complained  of. 

It  is  amusing  to  observe,  that  although  the  government 

*  I  have  drawn  up  this  article,  for  the  curiosity  of  its  subject  and  its 
details,  from  the  "  Discours  au  vray  de  tout  ce  qui  s'est  fait  et  passe"  pour 
Pentiere  Ne>ociation  de  l'Election  du  Roi  de  Pologne,  divis^s  en  trois 
livres,  par  Jehan  Choisnin  du  Chatelleraud,  nagueres  Secretaire  de  M. 
PEvesque  de  Valence,  1674." 


276 


BUILDINGS  IN  THE  METROPOLIS, 


was  frequently  employing  even  their  most  forcible  acts  tc 
restrict  the  limits  of  the  metropolis,  the  suburbs  were  grad- 
ually incorporating  with  the  city,  and  Westminster  at  length 
united  itself  to  London.  Since  that  happy  marriage,  their 
fertile  progenies  have  so  blended  together,  that  little  Lou- 
dons  are  no  longer  distinguishable  from  the  ancient  parent ; 
we  have  succeeded  in  spreading  the  capital  into  a  county, 
and  have  verified  the  prediction  of  James  the  First,  u  that 
England  will  shortly  be  London,  and  London  England." 

"  I  think  it  a  great  object,"  said  Justice  Best,  in  deliver- 
ing his  sentiments  in  favour  of  the  Game  Laws,  "  that  gen- 
tlemen should  have  a  temptation  to  reside  in  the  country, 
amongst  their  neighbours  and  tenantry,  whose  interests  must 
be  materially  advanced  by  such  a  circumstance.  The  links 
of  society  are  thereby  better  preserved,  and  the  mutual  advan- 
tages and  dependence  of  the  higher  and  lower  classes  on  one 
another  are  better  maintained.  The  baneful  effects  of  our 
present  system  we  have  lately  seen  in  a  neighbouring  coun- 
try, and  an  ingenious  French  writer  has  lately  shown  the  ill 
consequences  of  it  on  the  continent."  * 

These  sentiments  of  a  living  luminary  of  the  law  afford 
some  reason  of  policy  for  the  dread  which  our  government 
long  entertained  on  account  of  the  perpetual  growth  of  the 
metropolis  ;  the  nation,  like  a  hypochondriac,  was  ludicrously 
terrified  that  their  head  was  too  monstrous  for  their  body, 
and  that  it  drew  all  the  moisture  of  life  from  the  middle  and 
the  extremities.  Proclamations  warned  and  exhorted ;  but 
the  very  interference  of  a  royal  prohibition  seemed  to  render 
the  crowded  city  more  charming.  In  vain  the  statute  against 
new  buildings  was  passed  by  Elizabeth ;  in  vain  during  the 
reigns  of  James  the  First,  and  both  the  Charleses,  we  find 
proclamations  continually  issuing  to  forbid  new  erections. 

James  was  apt  to  throw  out  his  opinions  in  these  frequent 
addresses  to  the  people,  who  never  attended  to  them  ;  his 
majesty  notices  "  those  swarms  of  gentry,  who  through  the 
*  Morning  Chronicle,  January  23, 1820. 


AND  RESIDENCE  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 


277 


instigation  of  their  wives,  or  to  new-model  and  fashion  their 
daughters  (who  if  they  were  unmarried,  marred  their  repu- 
tations, and  if  married,  lost  them,)  did  neglect  their  country 
hospitality,  and  cumber  the  city,  a  general  nuisance  to  the 
kingdom." — He  addressed  the  Star-chamber  to  regulate  "  the 
exorbitancy  of  the  new  buildings  about  the  city,  which  were 
but  a  shelter  for  those  who,  when  they  had  spent  their  estates 
in  coaches,  lackeys,  and  fine  clothes  like  Frenchmen,  lived 
miserably  in  their  houses  like  Italians  ;  but  the  honour  of 
the  English  nobility  and  gentry  is  to  be  hospitable  among 
their  tenants."  Once  conversing  on  this  subject,  the  mon- 
arch threw  out  that  happy  illustration,  which  has  been  more 
than  once  noticed,  that  "  Gentlemen  resident  on  their  estates 
were  like  ships  in  port ;  their  value  and  magnitude  were 
felt  and  acknowledged ;  but  when  at  a  distance,  as  their  size 
seemed  insignificant,  so  their  worth  and  importance  were  not 
duly  estimated." 

A  manuscript  writer  of  the  times  complains  of  the  break- 
ing up  of  old  family  establishments,  all  crowding  to  "  upstart 
London." — "Every  one  strives  to  be  a  Diogenes  in  his 
house,  and  an  emperor  in  the  streets  ;  not  caring  if  they 
sleep  in  a  tub,  so  they  may  be  hurried  in  a  coach  :  giving 
that  allowance  to  horses  and  mares,  that  formerly  maintained 
houses  full  of  men  ;  pinching  many  a  belly  to  paint  a  few 
backs,  and  burying  all  the  treasures  of  the  kingdom  into  a 
few  citizens'  coffers  ;  their  woods  into  wardrobes,  their  leases 
into  laces,  and  their  goods  and  chattels  into  guarded  coats 
and  gaudy  toys."  Such  is  the  representation  of  an  eloquent 
contemporary ;  and  however  contracted  might  have  been  his 
knowledge  of  the  principles  of  political  economy,  and  of  that 
prosperity  which  a  wealthy  nation  is  said  to  derive  from  its 
consumption  of  articles  of  luxury,  the  moral  effects  have  not 
altered,  nor  has  the  scene  in  reality  greatly  changed. 

The  government  not  only  frequently  forbade  new  build- 
ings within  ten  miles  of  London,  but  sometimes  ordered  them 
to  be  pulled  down — after  they  had  been  erected  for  several 


278 


BUILDINGS  W  THE  METROPOLIS, 


years.  Every  six  or  seven  years,  proclamations  were  issued. 
In  Charles  the  First's  reign,  offenders  were  sharply  prose- 
cuted by  a  combined  operation,  not  only  against  houses,  but 
against  persons.*  Many  of  the  nobility  and  gentry,  in  1632, 
were  informed  against  for  having  resided  in  the  city,  con- 
trary to  the  late  proclamation.  And  the  attorney-general 
was  then  fully  occupied  in  filing  bills  of  indictment  against 
them,  as  well  as  ladies,  for  staying  in  town.  The  following 
curious  "  information "  in  the  Star-chamber  will  serve  our 
purpose. 

The  attorney-general  informs  his  majesty,  that  both  Eliz- 
abeth and  James,  by  several  proclamations,  had  commanded 
that  "  persons  of  livelihood  and  means  should  reside  in  their 
counties,  and  not  abide  or  sojourn  in  the  city  of  London,  so 
that  counties  remain  unserved.',  These  proclamations  were 
renewed  by  Charles  the  First,  who  had  observed  "a  greater 
number  of  nobility  and  gentry,  and  abler  sort  of  people,  with 
their  families,  had  resorted  to  the  cities  of  London  and  West- 
minster, residing  there,  contrary  to  the  ancient  usage  of  the 
English  nation  " — "  by  their  abiding  in  their  several  coun- 
ties where  their  means  arise,  they  would  not  only  have 
served  his  majesty  according  to  their  ranks,  but  by  their 
housekeeping  in  those  parts  the  meaner  sort  of  people  formerly 
were  guided,  directed,  and  relieved'''  He  accuses  them  of 
wasting  their  estates  in  the  metropolis,  which  would  employ 
and  relieve  the  common  people  in  their  several  counties. 
The  loose  and  disorderly  people  that  follow  them,  living  in 
and  about  the  cities,  are  so  numerous,  that  they  are  not  easily 
governed  by  the  ordinary  magistrates  :  mendicants  increase 
in  great  number — the  prices  of  all  commodities  are  highly 
raised,  &c.  The  king  had  formerly  proclaimed  that  all 
ranks  who  were  not  connected  with  public  offices,  at  the 
close  of  forty  days'  notice,  should  resort  to  their  several  coun- 
ties, and  with  their  families  continue  their  residence  there. 
And  his  majesty  further  warned  them  "  Not  to  put  them- 
*  Rush  worth,  vol.  ii.  p.- 288. 


AND  RESIDENCE  IN  THE  COUNTRY.  27'J 


selves  to  unnecessary  charge  in  providing  themselves  to 
return  in  winter  to  the  said  cities,  as  it  was  the  king's  firm 
resolution  to  withstand  such  great  and  growing  evil."  The 
information  concludes  with  a  most  copious  list  of  offenders, 
among  whom  are  a  great  number  of  nobility,  and  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  who  were  accused  of  having  lived  in  London  for 
several  months  after  the  given  warning  of  forty  days.  It 
appears  that  most  of  them,  to  elude  the  grasp  of  the  law,  had 
contrived  to  make  a  show  of  quitting  the  metropolis,  and, 
after  a  short  absence,  had  again  returned  ;  "  and  thus  the 
service  of  your  majesty  and  your  people  in  the  several  coun- 
ties have  been  neglected  and  undone." 

Such  is  the  substance  of  this  curious  information,  which 
enables  us,  at  least,  to  collect  the  ostensible  motives  of  this 
singular  prohibition.  Proclamations  had  hitherto  been  con- 
sidered little  more  than  the  news  of  the  morning,  and  three 
days  afterwards  were  as  much  read  as  the  last  week's  news- 
papers. They  were  now,  however,  resolved  to  stretch  forth 
the  strong  arm  of  law,  and  to  terrify  by  an  example.  The 
constables  were  commanded  to  bring  in  a  list  of  the  names 
of  strangers,  and  the  time  they  proposed  to  fix  their  resi- 
dence in  their  parishes.  A  remarkable  victim  on  this  occa- 
sion was  a  Mr.  Palmer,  a  Sussex  gentleman,  who  was  brought 
ore  tenus  into  the  Star-chamber  for  disobeying  the  procla- 
mation for  living  in  the  country.  Palmer  was  a  squire  of 
£1000  per  annum,  then  a  considerable  income.  He  appears 
to  have  been  some  rich  bachelor ;  for  in  his  defence  he 
alleged  that  he  had  never  been  married,  never  was  a  house- 
keeper, and  had  no  house  fitting  for  a  man  of  his  birth  to 
reside  in,  as  his  mansion  in  the  country  had  been  burnt  down 
within  two  years.  These  reasons  appeared  to  his  judges  to 
aggravate  rather  than  extenuate  his  offence ;  and  after  a 
long  reprimand  for  having  deserted  his  tenants  and  neigh- 
bours, they  heavily  fined  him  in  one  thousand  pounds.* 

*  From  a  manuscript  letter  from  Sir  George  Gresley  to  Sir  Thomas 
Puckering,  Nov.  1632. 


280 


BUILDINGS  IN  THE  METROPOLIS, 


The  condemnation  of  this  Sussex  gentleman  struck  a 
terror  through  a  wide  circle  of  sojourners  in  the  metropolis. 
I  find  accounts,  pathetic  enough,  of  their  "  packing  away  on 
all  sides  for  fear  of  the  worst ;  "  and  gentlemen  "  grumbling 
that  they  should  be  confined  to  their  houses : "  and  this  was 
sometimes  backed  too  by  a  second  proclamation,  respecting 
"their  wives  and  families,  and  also  widows,"  which  was 
"  durus  sermo  to  the  women.  It  is  nothing  pleasing  to  all," 
says  the  letter-writer,  "but  least  of  all  to  the  women."  "To 
encourage  gentlemen  to  live  more  willingly  in  the  country," 
says  another  letter-writer,  "  all  game-fowl,  as  pheasants,  par- 
tridges, ducks,  as  also  hares,  are  this  day  by  proclamation 
forbidden  to  be  dressed  or  eaten  in  any  inn."  Here  we  find 
realized  the  argument  of  Mr.  Justice  Best,  in  favour  of  the 
game-laws. 

It  is  evident  that  this  severe  restriction  must  have  pro- 
duced great  inconvenience  to  certain  persons  who  found  a 
residence  in  London  necessary  for  their  pursuits.  This 
appears  from  the  manuscript  diary  of  an  honest  antiquary, 
Sir  Symonds  d'Ewes ;  he  has  preserved  an  opinion  which, 
no  doubt,  was  spreading  fast,  that  such  prosecutions  of  the 
attorney -general  were  a  violation  of  the  liberty  of  the  sub- 
ject. "Most  men  wondered  at  Mr.  Noy,  the  attorney- 
general  being  accounted  a  great  lawyer,  that  so  strictly  took 
away  men's  liberties  at  one  blow,  confining  them  to  reside  at 
their  own  houses,  and  not  permitting  them  freedom  to  live 
where  they  pleased  within  the  king's  dominions.  I  was 
myself  a  little  startled  upon  the  first  coming  out  of  the  proc- 
lamation ;  but  having  first  spoken  with  the  Lord  Coventry, 
lord  keeper  of  the  great  seal,  at  Islington,  when  I  visited 
him  ;  and  afterwards  with  Sir  William  Jones,  one  of  the 
king's  justices  of  the  bench,  about  my  condition  and  residence 
at  the  said  town  of  Islington,  and  they  both  agreeing  that  I 
was  not  within  the  letter  of  the  proclamation,  nor  the  inten- 
tion of  it  neither,  I  rested  satisfied,  and  thought  myself 
secure,  laying  in  all  my  provisions  for  housekeeping  for  the 


AND  RESIDENCE  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 


281 


year  ensuing,  and  never  imagined  myself  to  be  in  danger, 
till  this  unexpected  censure  of  Mr.  Palmer  passed  in  the  , 
Star-chamber;  so,  having  advised  with  my  friends,  I  re- 
solved for  a  remove,  being  much  troubled  not  only  with  my 
separation  from  Recordes,  but  with  my  wife,  being  great 
with  child,  fearing  a  winter  journey  might  be  dangerous  for 
her.',  *  He  left  Islington  and  the  records  in  the  Tower  to 
return  to  his  country  seat,  to  the  great  disturbance  of  his 
studies. 

It  is,  perhaps,  difficult  to  assign  the  cause  of  this  marked 
anxiety  of  the  government  for  the  severe  restriction  of  the 
limits  of  the  metropolis,  and  the  prosecution  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry  to  compel  a  residence  on  their  estates.  "What- 
ever were  the  motives,  they  were  not  peculiar  to  the  existing 
sovereign,  but  remained  transmitted  from  cabinet  to  cabinet, 
and  were  even  renewed  under  Charles  the  Second.  At  a 
time  when  the  plague  often  broke  out,  a  close  and  growing 
metropolis  might  have  been  considered  to  be  a  great  evil ;  a 
terror  expressed  by  the  manuscript  writer  before  quoted, 
complaining  of  "  this  deluge  of  building,  that  we  shall  be  all 
poisoned  with  breathing  in  one  another's  faces."  The  police 
of  the  metropolis  was  long  imbecile,  notwithstanding  their 
"  strong  watches  and  guards  "  set  at  times  ;  and  bodies  of 
the  idle  and  the  refractory  often  assumed  some  mysteiious 
title,  and  were  with  difficulty  governed.  We  may  conceive 
the  state  of  the  police,  when  "  London  apprentices,"  growing 
in  number  and  insolence,  frequently  made  attempts  on  Bride- 
well, or  pulled  down  houses.  One  day  the  citizens,  in  prov- 
ing some  ordnance,  terrified  the  whole  court  of  James  the 
First  with  a  panic,  that  there  was  "  a  rising  in  the  city."  It 
is  possible  that  the  government  might  have  been  induced  to 
pursue  this  singular  conduct,  for  I  do  not  know  that  it  can  be 
paralleled,  of  pulling  down  new  built  houses  by  some  prin- 
ciple of  political  economy  which  remains  to  be  explained,  or 
ridiculed,  by  our  modern  adepts. 

*  Harl.  MSS.  6.  fo.  152. 


282 


BUILDINGS  IN  THE  METROPOLIS, 


It  would  hardly  be  supposed  that  the  present  subject  may- 
be enlivened  by  a  poem,  the  elegance  and  freedom  of  which 
may  even  now  be  admired.  It  is  a  great  literary  curiosity, 
and  its  length  may  be  excused  for  several  remarkable  points. 


AN  ODE, 

BY  SIR  RICHARD  FANSHAW, 

Upon  Occasion  of  his  Majesty's  Proclamation  in  the  Tear  1630,  commanding 

the  Gentry  to  reside  upon  their  Estates  in  the  Country. 

"  Now  war  is  all  the  world  about, 
And  every  where  Erinnys  reigns; 
Or  of  the  torch  so  late  put  out 

The  stench  remains. 
Holland  for  many  years  hath  been 
Of  christian  tragedies  the  stage, 
Yet  seldom  hath  she  played  a  scene 

Of  bloodier  rage: 
And  France,  that  was  not  long  compos'd, 
With  civil  drums  again  resounds, 
And  ere  the  old  are  fully  clos'd, 

Receives  new  wounds. 
The  great  Gustavus  in  the  west 
Plucks  the  imperial  eagle's  wing, 
Than  whom  the  earth  did  ne'er  invest 

A  fiercer  king. 
Only  the  island  which  we  sow, 
A  world  without  the  world  so  far, 
From  present  wounds,  it  cannot  show 

An  ancient  scar. 
White  peace,  the  beautifull'st  of  things, 
Seems  here  her  everlasting  rest 
To  fix  and  spread  the  downy  wings 

Over  the  nest. 
As  when  great  Jove,  usurping  reign, 
From  the  plagued  world  did  her  exile, 
And  tied  her  with  a  golden  chain 

To  one  blest  isle, 
Which  in  a  sea  of  plenty  swam, 
And  turtles  sang  on  every  bough, 
A  safe  retreat  to  all  that  came, 

As  ours  is  now; 


AND  RESIDENCE  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

Yet  we,  as  if  some  foe  were  here, 
Leave  the  despised  fields  to  clowns, 
And  come  to  save  ourselves,  as  'twere 

In  walled  towns. 
Hither  we  bring  wives,  babes,  rich  clothes, 
And  gems — till  now  my  soveraign 
The  growing  evil  doth  oppose : 

Counting  in  vain 
His  care  preserves  us  from  annoy 
Of  enemies  his  realms  to  invade, 
Unless  he  force  us  to  enjoy 

The  peace  he  made, 
To  roll  themselves  in  envied  leisure; 
He  therefore  sends  the  landed  heirs, 
Whilst  he  proclaims  not  his  own  pleasure 

So  much  was  theirs. 
The  sap  and  blood  of  the  land,  which  fled 
Into  the  root,  and  choked  the  heart, 
Are  bid  their  quick'ning  power  to  spread 

Through  every  part. 
0  'twas  an  act,  not  for  my  muse 
To  celebrate,  nor  the  dull  age, 
Until  the  country  air  infuse 

A  purer  rage. 
And  if  the  fields  as  thankful  prove 
For  benefits  received,  as  seed, 
They  will  to  'quite  so  great  a  love 

A  Virgil  breed. 
Nor  let  the  gentry  grudge  to  go 
Into  those  places  whence  they  grew, 
But  think  them  blest  they  may  do  so. 

Who  would  pursue 
The  smoky  glory  of  the  town, 
That  ma}r  go  till  his  native  earth, 
And  by  the  shining  fire  sit  down 

Of  his  own  hearth, 
Free  from  the  griping  scrivener's  bands, 
And  the  more  biting  mercer's  books; 
Free  from  the  bait  of  oiled  hands, 

And  painted  looks  ? 
The  country  too  even  chops  for  rain; 
You  that  exhale  it  by  your  power, 
Let  the  fat  drops  fall  down  again 

In  a  full  shower. 
And  you  bright  beauties  of  the  time, 
That  waste  yourselves  here  in  a  blaze, 
Fix  to  your  orb  and  proper  clime 

Your  wandering  rays. 


284 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


Let  no  dark  corner  of  the  land 

Be  unembellish'd  with  one  gem, 

And  those  which  here  too  thick  do  stand 

Sprinkle  on  them. 
Believe  me,  ladies,  you  will  find 
In  that  sweet  life  more  solid  joys, 
More  true  contentment  to  the  mind 

Than  all  town-toys. 
Nor  Cupid  there  less  blood  doth  spill, 
But  heads  his  shafts  with  chaster  love, 
Not  feather' d  with  a  sparrow's  quill, 

But  of  a  dove. 
There  you  shall  hear  the  nightingale, 
The  harmless  syren  of  the  wood, 
How  prettily  she  tells  a  tale 

Of  rape  and  blood. 
The  lyric  lark,  with  all  beside 
Of  Nature's  feather'd  quire,  and  all 
The  commonwealth  of  flowers  in  'ts  pride 

Behold  you  shall. 
The  lily  queen,  the  royal  rose, 
The  gilly-flower,  prince  of  the  blood! 
The  courtier  tulip,  gay  in  clothes, 

The  regal  bud; 
The  violet  purple  senator, 
How  they  do  mock  the  pomp  of  state, 
And  all  that  at  the  surly  door 

Of  great  ones  wait. 
Plant  trees  you  may,  and  see  them  shoot 
Up  with  your  children,  to  be  served 
To  your  clean  boards,  and  the  fairest  fruit 

To  be  preserved ; 
And  learn  to  use  their  several  gums; 
'Tis  innocence  in  the  sweet  blood 
Of  cherry,  apricots,  and  plums, 

To  be  imbrued." 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 

The  satires  and  the  comedies  of  the  age  have  been  con- 
sulted by  the  historian  of  our  manners,  and  the  features  of 
the  times  have  been  traced  from  those  amusing  records  of 
folly.     Dames  Barrington  enlarged  this  field  of  domestic 


EOYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


28j 


history,  in  his  very  entertaining  "Observations  on  the  Stat- 
utes." Another  source,  which  to  me  seems  not  to  have  been 
explored,  is  the  proclamations  which  have  frequently  issued 
from  our  sovereigns,  and  were  produced  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  times. 

These  proclamations,  or  royal  edicts,  in  our  country  were 
never  armed  with  the  force  of  laws — only  as  they  enforce 
the  execution  of  laws  already  'established ;  and  the  procla- 
mation of  a  British  monarch  may  become  even  an  illegal 
act,  if  it  be  in  opposition  to  the  law  of  the  land.  Once 
indeed  it  was  enacted,  under  the  arbitrary  government  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  by  the  sanction  of  a  pusillanimous  par- 
liament, that  the  force  of  acts  of  parliament  should  be  given 
to  the  king's  proclamations ;  and  at  a  much  later  period,  the 
chancellor,  Lord  Ellesmere,  was  willing  to  have  advanced 
the  king's  proclamations  into  laws,  on  the  sophistical  maxim, 
that  "  all  precedents  had  a  time  when  they  began  ; "  but  this 
chancellor  argued  ill,  as  he  was  told  with  spirit  by  Lord 
Coke,  in  the  presence  of  James  the  First,*  who  probably 
did  not  think  so  ill  of  the  chancellor's  logic.  Blackstone,  to 
whom  on  this  occasion  I  could  not  fail  to  turn,  observes,  on 
the  statute  under  Henry  the  Eighth,  that  it  would  have  intro- 
duced the  most  despotic  tyranny,  and  must  have  proved  fatal 
to  the  liberties  of  this  kingdom,  had  it  not  been  luckily  re- 
pealed in  the  minority  of  his  successor,  whom  he  elsewhere 
calls  an  amiable  prince — all  our  young  princes,  we  discover, 
were  amiable  !  Blackstone  has  not  recorded  the  subsequent 
attempt  of  the  lord  chancellor  under  James  the  First,  which 
tended  to  raise  proclamations  to  the  nature  of  an  ukase  of 
the  autocrat  of  both  the  Russias.  It  seems  that  our  national 
freedom,  notwithstanding  our  ancient  constitution,  has  had 
several  narrow  escapes. 

Royal  proclamations,  however,  in  their  own  nature  are 
innocent  enough ;  for  since  the  manner,  time,  and  circum- 

*  The  whole  story  is  in  12  Co.  746.  I  owe  this  curious  fact  to  the  author 
of  Eunomus,  ii.  116. 


286 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


stances  of  putting  laws  in  execution  must  frequently  be  left 
to  the  discretion  of  the  executive  magistrate,  a  proclamation 
that  is  not  adverse  to  existing  laws  need  not  create  any 
alarm ;  the  only  danger  they  incur  is  that  they  seem  never 
to  have  been  attended  to,  and  rather  testified  the  wishes  of 
the  government  than  the  compliance  of  the  subjects.  They 
were  not  laws,  and  were  therefore  considered  as  sermons  or 
pamphlets,  or  any  thing  forgotten  in  a  week's  time ! 

These  proclamations  are  frequently  alluded  to  by  the  let- 
ter writers  of  the  times,  among  the  news  of  the  day,  but 
usually  their  royal  virtue  hardly  kept  them  alive  beyond  the 
week.  Some  on  important  subjects  are  indeed  noticed  in 
our  history.  Many  indications  of  the  situation  of  affairs,  the 
feelings  of  the  people,  and  the  domestic  history  of  our  nation, 
may  be  drawn  from  these  singular  records.  I  have  never 
found  them  to  exist  in  any  collected  form,  and  they  have 
been  probably  only  accidentally  preserved. 

The  proclamations  of  every  sovereign  would  characterize 
his  reign,  and  open  to  us  some  of  the  interior  operations  of 
the  cabinet.  The  despotic  will,  yet  vacillating  conduct  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  may  be 
traced  in  a  proclamation  to  abolish  the  translations  of  the 
scriptures,  and  even  the  reading  of  Bibles  by  the  people ; 
commanding  all  printers  of  English  books  and  pamphlets  to 
affix  their  names  to  them,  and  forbidding  the  sale  of  any 
English  books  printed  abroad.  When  the  people  were  not 
suffered  to  publish  their  opinions  at  home,  all  the  opposition 
flew  to  foreign  presses,  and  their  writings  were  then  smug- 
gled into  the  country  in  which  they  ought  to  have  been 
printed.  Hence  many  volumes  printed  in  a  foreign  type  at 
this  period  are  found  in  our  collections.  The  king  shrunk 
in  dismay  from  that  spirit  of  reformation  which  had  only 
been  a  party-business  with  him,  and  making  himself  a  pope, 
decided  that  nothing  should  be  learnt  but  what  he  himself 
deigned  to  teach ! 

The  antipathies  and  jealousies,  which  our  populace  too 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


287 


long  indulged  by  their  incivilities  to  all  foreigners,  are  char- 
acterized by  a  proclamation  issued  by  Mary,  commanding 
her  subjects  to  behave  themselves  peaceably  towards  the 
strangers  coming  with  King  Philip ;  that  noblemen  and  gen- 
tlemen should  warn  their  servants  to  refrain  from  "  strife 
and  contention,  either  by  outward  deeds,  taunting  words, 
unseemly  countenance,  by  mimicking  them,  &c."  The  pun- 
ishment not  only  "  her  grace's  displeasure,  but  to  be  com- 
mitted to  prison  without  bail  or  mainprise." 

The  proclamations  of  Edward  the  Sixth  curiously  exhibit 
the  unsettled  state  of  the  reformation,  where  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  Catholicism  were  still  practised  by  the  new 
religionists,  while  an  opposite  party,  resolutely  bent  on  an 
eternal  separation  from  Rome,  were  avowing  doctrines  which 
afterwards  consolidated  themselves  into  puritanism,  and  while 
others  were  hatching  up  that  demoralizing  fanaticism,  which 
subsequently  shocked  the  nation  writh  those  monstrous  sects, 
the  indelible  disgrace  of  our  country !  In  one  proclamation 
the  king  denounces  to  the  people  "  those  who  despise  the 
sacrament  by  calling  it  idol,  or  such  other  vile  name." 
Another  is  against  such  "  as  innovate  any  ceremony,"  and 
who  are  described  as  "  certain  private  preachers  and  other 
laiemen,  who  rashly  attempt  of  their  own  and  singular  wit 
and  mind,  not  only  to  persuade  the  people  from  the  old  and 
accustomed  rites  and  ceremonies,  but  also  themselves  bring 
in  new  and  strange  orders  according  to  their  phantasies. 
The  which,  as  it  is  an  evident  token  of  pride  and  arrogancy, 
so  it  tendeth  both  to  confusion  and  disorder."  Another 
proclamation,  to  press  "a  godly  conformity  throughout  his 
realm,"  where  we  learn  the  following  curious  fact,  of  "  divers 
unlearned  and  indiscreet  priests  of  a  devilish  mind  and 
intent,  teaching  that  a  man  may  forsake  his  wife  and  marry 
another,  his  first  wife  yet  living ;  likewise  that  the  wife  may 
do  the  same  to  the  husband.  Others  that  a  man  may  have 
two  wives  or  more  at  once,  for  that  these  things  are  not  pro- 
hibited by  God's  law,  but  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome's  law ;  so 


288 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


that  by  such  evil  and  fantastical  opinions  some  have  not 
been  afraid  indeed  to  marry  and  keep  two  wives."  Here,  as 
in  the  bud,  we  may  unfold  those  subsequent  scenes  of  our 
story,  which  spread  out  in  the  following  century ;  the  branch- 
ing out  of  the  non-conformists  into  their  various  sects;  and 
the  indecent  haste  of  our  reformed  priesthood,  who,  in  their 
zeal  to  cast  off  the  yoke  of  Rome,  desperately  submitted  to 
the  liberty  of  having  "  two  wives  or  more !  There  is  a 
proclamation  to  abstain  from  flesh  on  Fridays  and  Satur- 
days ;  exhorted  on  the  principle,  not  only  that  "men  should 
abstain  on  those  days,  and  forbear  their  pleasures  and  the 
meats  wherein  they  have  more  delight,  to  the  intent  to  sub- 
due their  bodies  to  the  soul  and  spirit,  but  also  for  worldly 
policy.  To  use  fish  for  the  benefit  of  the  commonwealth, 
and  profit  of  many  who  be  fishers  and  men  using  that  trade, 
unto  the  which  this  realm,  in  every  part  environed  with  the 
seas,  and  so  plentiful  of  fresh  waters,  be  increased  the  nour- 
ishment of  the  land  by  saving  flesh."  It  did  not  seem  to 
occur  to  the  king  in  council  that  the  butchers  might  have 
had  cause  to  petition  against  this  monopoly  of  two  days  in 
the  week  granted  to  the  fishmongers  ;  and  much  less,  that  it 
was  better  to  let  the  people  eat  flesh  or  fish  as  suited  their 
conveniency.  In  respect  to  the  religious  rite  itself,  it  was 
evidently  not  considered  as  an  essential  point  of  faith,  since 
the  king  enforces  it  on  the  principle,  "  for  the  profit  and  com- 
modity of  his  realm."  Burnet  has  made  a  just  observation 
on  religious  fasts.* 

A  proclamation  against  excess  of  apparel,  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  and  renewed  many  years  after,  shows  the  luxury 
of  dress,  which  was  indeed  excessive  :  I  shall  shortly  notice 
it  in  another  article.  There  is  a  curious  one  against  the  ico- 
noclasts, or  image-breakers  and  picture-destroyers,  for  which 
the  antiquary  will  hold  her  in  high  reverence.  Her  majesty 
informs  us,  that  "  several  persons,  ignorant,  malicious,  or  cov- 
etous, of  late  years,  have  spoiled  and  broken  ancient  monu- 
*  History  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  ii.  p.  96,  folio. 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


289 


ments,  erected  only  to  show  a  memory  to  posterity,  and  not  to 
nourish  any  kind  of  superstition."  The  queen  laments,  that 
what  is  broken  and  spoiled  would  be  now  hard  to  recover,  but 
advises  her  good  people  to  repair  them  ;  and  commands  them 
in  future  to  desist  from  committing  such  injuries.  A  more 
extraordinary  circumstance  than  the  proclamation  itself  was 
the  manifestation  of  her  majesty's  zeal,  in  subscribing  her  name 
with  her  own  hand  to  every  proclamation  dispersed  through- 
out England.  These  image-breakers  first  appeared  in  Eliz- 
abeth's reign  ;  it  was  afterwards  that  they  flourished  in  all 
the  perfection  of  their  handicraft,  and  have  contrived  that 
these  monuments  of  art  shall  carry  down  to  posterity  the 
memory  of  their  shame  and  of  their  age.  These  image- 
breakers,  so  famous  in  our  history,  had  already  appeared 
under  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  continued  their  practical  zeal, 
in  spite  of  proclamations  and  remonstrances,  till  they  had  ac- 
complished their  work.  In  1641,  an  order  was  published  by 
the  Commons,  that  they  should  "  take  away  all  scandalous 
pictures  out  of  churches  :  "  but  more  was  intended  than  was 
expressed ;  and  we  are  told  that  the  people  did  not  at  first 
carry  their  barbarous  practice  against  all  Art,  to  the  lengths 
which  they  afterwards  did,  till  they  were  instructed  by  pri-  ' 
rate  information/  Dowsing' s  Journal  has  been  published, 
and  shows  what  the  order  meant !  He  was  their  giant  de- 
stroyer !  Such  are  the  Machiavelian  secrets  of  revolutionary 
governments ;  they  give  a  public  order  in  moderate  words, 
but  the  secret  one,  for  the  deeds,  is  that  of  extermination  !  It 
was  this  sort  of  men  who  discharged  their  prisoners  by  giv- 
ing a  secret  sign  to  lead  them  to  their  execution  ! 

The  proclamations  of  James  the  First,  by  their  number, 
are  said  to  have  sunk  their  value  with  the  people.  He  was 
fond  of  giving  them  gentle  advice  ;  and  it  is  said  by  Wilson 
that  there  was  an  intention  to  have  this  king's  printed  proc- 
lamations bound  up  in  a  volume,  that  better  notice  might  be 
taken  of  the  matters  contained  in  them.  There  is  more  than 
one  to  warn  the  people  against  "  speaking  too  freely  of  mat 

VOL.  IV.  19 


290 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


ters  above  their  reach,"  prohibiting  all  "undutiful  speeches." 
I  suspect  that  many  of  these  proclamations  are  the  cpmposi- 
tion  of  the  king's  own  hand ;  he  was  often  his  own  secretary. 
There  is  an  admirable  one  against  private  duels  and  chal- 
lenges. The  curious  one  respecting  Cowell's  "  Interpreter  " 
is  a  sort  of  royal  review  of  some  of  the  arcana  of  state  ;  I 
refer  to  the  quotation.* 

I  will  preserve  a  passage  of  a  proclamation  "  against  excess 
of  lavish  and  licentious  speech."  James  was  a  king  of  words ! 

"Although  the  commixture  of  nations,  confluence  of  ambassadors,  and 
the  relation  which  the  affairs  of  our  kingdoms  have  had  towards  the  busi- 
ness and  interests  of  foreign  states,  have  caused,  during  our  regiment 
(government,)  a  greater  openness  and  liberty  of  discourse,  even  concerning 
matters  of  state  (which  are  no  themes  or  subjects  Jit  for  vulgar  persons 
or  common  meetings)  than  hath  been  in  former  times  used  or  permitted; 
and  although  in  our  own  nature  and  judgment  we  do  well  allow  of  con- 
venient freedom  of  speech,  esteeming  any  over-curious  or  restrained  hands 
carried  in  that  kind  rather  as  a  weakness,  or  else  over-much  severity  of 
government  than  otherwise;  yet  for  as  much  as  it  is  come  to  our  ears,  by 
common  report,  that  there  is  at  this  time  a  more  licentious  passage  of 
lavish  discourse  and  bold  censure  in  matters  of  state  than  is  fit  to  be  suffered: 
We  give  this  warning,  &c,  to  take  heed  how  they  intermeddle  by  pen  or 
speech  with  causes  of  state  and  secrets  of  empire,  either  at  home  or  abroad, 
but  contain  themselves  within  that  modest  and  reverent  regard  of  matters 
above  their  reach  and  calling;  nor  to  give  any  manner  of  applause  to  such 
discourse,  without  acquainting  one  of  our  privy  council  within  the  space 
of  twenty-four  hours." 

It  seems  that  "  the  bold  speakers,"  as  certain  persons  were 
then  denominated,  practised  an  old  artifice  of  lauding  his 
majesty,  while  they  severely  arraigned  the  counsels  of  the 
cabinet ;  on  this  James  observes,  "  Neither  let  any  man  mis- 
take us  so  much  as  to  think  that  by  giving  fair  and  specious 
attributes  to  our  person,  they  cover  the  scandals  which  they 
otherwise  lay  upon  our  government,  but  conceive  that  we 
make  no  other  construction  of  them  but  as  fine  and  artificial 
glosses,  the  better  to  give  passage  to  the  rest  of  their  imputa- 
tions and  scandals." 


*  I  have  noticed  it  in  Calamities  of  Authors,  ii.  246. 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


291 


This  was  a  proclamation  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his 
reign ;  he  repeated  it  in  the  nineteenth,  and  he  might  have 
proceeded  to  "  the  crack  of  doom  "  with  the  same  effect ! 

Rushworth,  in  his  second  volume  of  Historical  Collections, 
has  preserved  a  considerable  number  of  the  proclamations  of 
Charles  the  First,  of  which  many  are  remarkable ;  but  lat- 
terly they  mark  the  feverish  state  of  his  reign.  One  regu- 
lates access  for  cure  of  the  king's  evil — by  which  his  majesty, 
it  appears,  "  hath  had  good  success  therein ; "  but  though 
ready  and  willing  as  any  king  or  queen  of  this  realm  ever 
was  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  his  good  subjects,  "  his  majesty 
commands  to  change  the  seasons  for  his  '  sacred  touch '  from 
Easter  and  Whitsuntide  to  Easter  and  Michaelmas,  as  times 
more  convenient  for  the  temperature  of  the  season,"  &c. 
Another  against  "  departure  out  of  the  realm  without  license." 
One  to  erect  an  office  "  for  the  suppression  of  cursing  and 
swearing,"  to  receive  the  forfeitures ;  against  "  libellous  and 
seditious  pamphlets  and  discourses  from  Scotland,"  framed 
by  factious  spirits,  and  republished  in  London — this  was  in 
1640 ;  and  Charles,  at  the  crisis  of  that  great  insurrection  in 
which  he  was  to  be  at  once  the  actor  and  the  spectator,  fondly 
imagined  that  the  possessors  of  these  "  scandalous  "  pamphlets 
would  bring  them,  as  he  proclaimed  "  to  one  of  his  majesty's 
justices  of  peace,  to  be  by  him  sent  to  one  of  his  principal 
secretaries  of  state  ! " 

On  the  Restoration,  Charles  the  Second  had  to  court  his 
people  by  his  domestic  regulations.  He  early  issued  a  re- 
markable proclamation,  which  one  would  think  reflected  on 
his  favourite  companions,  and  which  strongly  marks  the 
moral  disorders  of  those  depraved  and  wretched  times.  It 
is  against  "  vicious,  debauched,  and  profane  persons ! "  who 
are  thus  described  : — 

"A  sort  of  men  of  whom  we  have  heard  much,  and  are  sufficiently 
ashamed ;  who  spend  their  time  in  taverns,  tippling-houses,  and  debauches, 
giving  no  other  evidence  of  their  affection  to  us  but  in  drinking  our  health,  and 
inveighing  against  all  others  who  are  not  of  their  own  dissolute  temper ; 


292 


ROYAL  PROCLAMATIONS. 


and  who,  in  truth,  have  more  discredited  our  cause,  by  the  license  of  their 
manners  and  lives,  than  they  could  ever  advance  it  by  their  affection  or 
courage.  We  hope  all  persons  of  honour,  or  in  place  and  authority,  will 
so  far  as«ist  us  in  discountenancing  such  men,  that  their  discretion  and 
shame  will  persuade  them  to  reform  what  their  conscience  would  not;  and 
that  the  displeasure  of  good  men  towards  them  may  supply  what  the  laws 
have  not,  and,  it  may  be,  cannot  well  provide  against;  there  being  by  the 
license  and  corruption  of  the  times,  and  the  depraved  nature  of  man,  many 
enormities,  scandals,  and  impieties  in  practice  and  manners,  which  laws 
cannot  icell  describe,  and  consequently  not  enough  provide  against,  which  may, 
by  the  example  and  severity  of  virtuous  men,  be  easily  discountenanced, 
and  by  degrees  suppressed." 

Surely  the  gravity  and  moral  severity  of  Clarendon  dic- 
tated this  proclamation  !  which  must  have  afforded  some 
mirth  to  the  gay,  debauched  circle,  the  loose  cronies  of 
royalty  ! 

It  is  curious  that,  in  1660,  Charles  the  Second  issued  a 
long  proclamation  for  the  strict  observance  of  Lent,  and  al- 
leges for  it  the  same  reason  as  we  found  in  Edward  the 
Sixth's  proclamation,  "  for  the  good  it  produces  in  the  em- 
ployment of 'fishermen?  .No  ordinaries,  taverns,  &c.  to  make 
any  supper  on  Friday  nights,  either  in  Lent  or  out  of  Lent. 

Charles  the  Second  issued  proclamations  u  to  repress  the 
excess  of  gilding  of  coaches  and  chariots,"  to  restrain  the  waste 
of  gold,  which,  as  they  supposed,  by  the  excessive  use  of 
gilding,  had  grown  scarce.  Against  "  the  exportation  and 
the  buying  and  selling  of  gold  and  silver  at  higher  rates  than 
in  our  mint,"  alluding  to  a  statute  made  in  the  ninth  year  of 
Edward  the  Third,  called  the  Statute  of  Money.  Against 
building  in  and  about  London  and  Westminster  in  1661: 
"The  inconveniences  daily  growing  by  increase  of  new 
buildings  are,  that  the  people  increasing  in  such  great  num- 
bers, are  not  well  to  be  governed  by  the  wonted  officers :  the 
prices  of  victuals  are  enhanced ;  the  health  of  the  subject 
inhabiting  the  cities  much  endangered,  and  many  good  towns 
and  boroughs  unpeopled,  and  in  their  trades  much  decayed — 
frequent  fires  occasioned  by  timber-buildings."  It  orders  to 
build  with  brick  and  stone,  "  which  would  beautify,  and  make 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


293 


an  uniformity  in  the  buildings ;  and  which  are  not  only  more 
durable  and  safe  against  fire,  but  by  experience  are  found  to 
be  of  little  more  if  not  less  charge  than  the  building  with 
timber'''  We  must  infer  that,  by  the  general  use  of  timber, 
it  had  considerably  risen  in  price,  while  brick  and  stone  not 
then  being  generally  used,  became  as  cheap  as  wood  ! 

The  most  remarkable  proclamations  of  Charles  the  Second 
are  those  which  concern  the  regulations  of  coffee-houses,  and 
one  for  putting  them  down;  to  restrain  the  spreading  of  false 
news,  and  licentious  talking  of  state  and  government,  the 
speakers  and  the  hearers  were  made  alike  punishable.  This 
was  highly  resented  as  an  illegal  act  by  the  friends  of  civil 
freedom ;  who,  however,  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  freedom 
of  the  coffee-houses,  under  the  promise  of  not  sanctioning 
treasonable  speeches.  It  was  urged  by  the  court  lawyers,  as 
the  high  Tory,  Roger  North,  tells  us,  that  the  retailing  coffee 
might  be  an  innocent  trade,  when  not  used  in  the  nature  of  a 
common  assembly  to  discourse  of  matters  of  state  news  and 
great  persons,  as  a  means  "  to  discontent  the  people."  On 
the  other  side,  Kennet  asserted  that  the  discontents  existed 
before  they  met  at  the  coffee-houses,  and  that  the  proclama- 
tion was  only  intended  to  suppress  an  evil  which  was  not  to 
be  prevented.  At  this  day  we  know  which  of  those  two 
historians  exercised  the  truest  judgment.  It  was  not  the 
coffee-houses  which  produced  political  feeling,  but  the  re- 
verse. Whenever  government  ascribes  effects  to  a  cause 
quite  inadequate  to  produce  them,  they  are  only  seeking 
means  to  hide  the  evil  which  they  are  too  weak  to  suppress. 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 

This  is  a  subject  which  has  been  hitherto  but  imperfectly 
comprehended  even  by  some  historians  themselves ;  and  has 
too  often  incurred  the  satire,  and  even  the  contempt,  of  those 


294 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


volatile  spirits  who  play  about  the  superficies  of  truth,  want- 
ing the  industry  to  view  it  on  more  than  one  side ;  and  those 
superficial  readers  who  imagine  that  every  tale  is  told  when 
it  is  written. 

Secret  history  is  the  supplement  of  history  itself,  and  is  its 
great  corrector;  and  the  combination  of  secret  with  public 
history  has  in  itself  a  perfection,  which  each  taken  separately 
has  not.  The  popular  historian  composes  a  plausible  rather 
than  an  accurate  tale ;  researches  too  fully  detailed  would 
injure  the  just  proportions,  or  crowd  the  bold  design  of  the 
elegant  narrative ;  and  facts,  presented  as  they  occurred, 
would  not  adapt  themselves  to  those  theoretical  writers  of 
history  who  arrange  events  not  in  a  natural,  but  in  a  sys- 
tematic order.  But  in  secret  history  we  are  more  busied  in 
observing  what  passes  than  in  being  told  of  it.  We  are 
transformed  into  the  contemporaries  of  the  writers,  while  we 
are  standing  on  the  "  vantage-ground  "  of  their  posterity ; 
and  thus  what  to  them  appeared  ambiguous,  to  us  has  become 
unquestionable ;  what  was  secret  to  them  has  been  confided 
to  us.  They  mark  the  beginnings,  and  we  the  ends.  From 
the  fulness  of  their  accounts  we  recover  much  which  had 
been  lost  to  us  in  the  general  views  of  history,  and  it  is  by 
this  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  persons  and  circum- 
stances, that  we  are  enabled  to  correct  the  less  distinct,  and 
sometimes  the  fallacious  appearances  in  the  page  of  the 
popular  historian.  He  who  only  views  things  in  masses  will 
have  no  distinct  notion  of  any  one  particular ;  he  may  be  a 
fanciful  or  a  passionate  historian,  but  he  is  not  the  historian 
who  will  enlighten  while  he  charms. 

But  as  secret  history  appears  to  deal  in  minute  things,  its 
connection  with  great  results  is  not  usually  suspected.  The 
circumstantiality  of  its  story,  the  changeable  shadows  of  its 
characters,  the  redundance  of  its  conversations,  and  the  many 
careless  superfluities  which  egotism  or  vanity  may  throw 
out,  seem  usually  confounded  with  that  small-talk  familiarly 
termed  gossiping.    But  the  gossiping  of  a  profound  poli- 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


295 


tician,  or  a  vivacious  observer,  in  one  of  their  letters,  or  in 
their  memoirs,  often,  by  a  spontaneous  stroke,  reveals  the 
individual,  or  by  a  simple  incident  unriddles  a  mysterious 
event.  We  may  discover  the  value  of  these  pictures  of  hu- 
man nature,  with  which  secret  history  abounds,  by  an  obser- 
vation which  occurred  between  two  statesmen  in  office. 
Lord  Raby,  our  ambassador,  apologized  to  Lord  Boling- 
broke,  then  secretary  of  state,  for  troubling  him  with  the 
minuter  circumstances  which  occurred  in  his  conferences  ;  in 
reply,  the  minister  requests  the  ambassador  to  continue 
the  same  manner  of  writing,  and  alleges  an  excellent 
reason  :  "  Those  minute  circumstances  give  very  great  light 
to  the  general  scope  and  design  of  the  persons  negotiated 
with.  And  I  own  that  nothing  pleases  me  more  in  that  val- 
uable collection  of  the  Cardinal  D'Ossat's  letters,  than  the 
naive  descriptions  which  he  gives  of  the  looks,  gestures,  and 
even  tones  of  voice,  of  the  persons  he  conferred  with."  I 
regret  to  have  to  record  the  opinions  of  another  noble  author, 
who  recently  has  thrown  out  some  degrading  notions  of  secret 
history,  and  particularly  of  the  historians.  I  would  have 
silently  passed  by  a  vulgar  writer,  superficial,  prejudiced, 
and  uninformed  ;  but  as  so  many  are  yet  deficient  in  correct 
notions  of  secret  history,  it  is  but  justice  that  their  represent- 
ative should  be  heard  before  they  are  condemned. 

His  lordship  says,  that  "  Of  late  the  appetite  for  Remains 
of  all  kinds  has  surprisingly  increased.  A  story  repeated  by 
the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth's  waiting- woman  to  Lord  Roches- 
ter's valet,  forms  the  subject  of  investigation  for  a  philosophical 
historian  ;  and  you  may  hear  of  an  assembly  of  scholars  and 
authors  discussing  the  validity  of  a  piece  of  scandal  invented 
by  a  maid  of  honour  more  than  two  centuries  ago,  and  re- 
peated to  an  obscure  writer  by  Queen  Elizabeth's  house- 
keeper. It  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  interest  to  see  the 
letters  of  every  busy  trifler.  Yet  who  does  not  laugh  at  such 
men  ?  "  This  is  the  attack  !  but  as  if  some  half  truths,  like 
light  through  the  cranny  in  a  dark  room,  had  just  darted  in 


296 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


a  stream  of  atoms  over  this  scoffer  at  secret  history,  he  sud- 
denly views  his  object  with  a  very  different  appearance — for 
his  lordship  justly  concludes  that  "  It  must  be  confessed, 
however,  that  knowledge  of  this  kind  is  very  entertaining  ; 
and  here  and  there  among  the  rubbish  we  find  hints  that 
may  give  the  philosopher  a  clue  to  important  facts,  and 
afford  to  the  moralist  a  better  analysis  of  the  human  mind 
than  a  whole  library  of  metaphysics ! "  The  philosopher 
may  well  abhor  all  intercourse  with  wits  !  because  the  fac- 
ulty of  judgment  is  usually  quiescent  with  them  ;  and  in 
their  orgasm  they  furiously  decry  what  in  their  sober  senses 
they  as  eagerly  laud !  Let  me  inform  his  lordship,  that 
"the  waiting- woman  and  the  valet"  of  eminent  persons  are 
sometimes  no  unimportant  personages  in  history.  By  the 
Memoir  es  de  Mujis.  De  la  Porte,  premier  valet-de-chambre  de 
Louis  XIV.  we  learn  what  before  "the  valet"  wrote  had 
not  been  known — the  shameful  arts  which  Mazarin  allowed 
to  be  practised,  to  give  a  bad  education  to  the  prince,  and  to 
manage  him  by  depraving  his  tastes.  Madame  de  Motteville, 
in  her  Memoirs,  "  the  waiting  lady "  of  our  Henrietta,  has 
preserved  for  our  own  English  history  some  facts  which  have 
been  found  so  essential  to  the  narrative,  that  they  are  refer- 
red to  by  our  historians.  In  Gui  Joly,  the  humble  depend- 
ant of  Cardinal  de  Retz,  we  discover  an  unconscious  but  a 
useful  commentator  on  the  memoirs  of  his  master ;  and  the 
most  affecting  personal  anecdotes  of  Charles  the  First  have 
been  preserved  by  Thomas  Herbert,  his  gentleman  in  wait- 
ing ;  Clery,  the  valet  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  with  pathetic 
faithfulness  has  shown  us  the  man,  in  the  monarch  whom  he 
served  ! 

Of  secret  history  there  are  obviously  two  species;  it 
is  positive,  or  it  is  relative.  It  is  positive,  when  the  facts 
are  first  given  to  the  world  ;  a  sort  of  knowledge  which  can 
only  be  drawn  from  our  own  personal  experience,  or  from 
contemporary  documents  preserved  in  their  manuscript  state 
in  public  or  in  private  collections  ;  or  it  is  relative,  in  pro- 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


297 


portion  to  the  knowledge  of  those  to  whom  it  is  communi- 
cated, and  will  be  more  or  less  valued,  according  to  the 
acquisitions  of  the  reader ;  and  this  inferior  species  of  secret 
history  is  drawn  from  rare  and  obscure  books  and  other  pub- 
lished authorities,  often  as  scarce  as  manuscripts. 

Some  experience  I  have  had  in  those  literary  researches, 
where  curiosity,  ever  wakeful  and  vigilant,  discovers  among 
contemporary  manuscripts  new  facts ;  illustrations  of  old 
ones ;  and  sometimes  detects,  not  merely  by  conjecture,  the 
concealed  causes  of  many  events  ;  often  opens  a  scene  in 
which  some  well-known  personage  is  exhibited  in  a  new 
character ;  and  thus  penetrates  beyond  those  generalizing 
representations  which  satisfy  the  superficial,  and  often  cover 
the  page  of  history  with  delusion  and  fiction. 

It  is  only  since  the  latter  institution  of  national  libraries 
that  these  immense  collections  of  manuscripts  have  been 
formed  ;  with  us  they  are  an  undescribable  variety,  usually 
classed  under  the  vague  title  of  "  state  papers."  The  in- 
structions of  ambassadors,  but  more  particularly  their  own 
dispatches  ;  charters  and  chronicles  brown  with  antiquity, 
which  preserve  a  world  which  had  been  else  lost  for  us,  like 
the  one  before  the  deluge  ;  series  upon  series  of  private  cor- 
respondence, among  which  we  discover  the  most  confidential 
communications,  designed  by  the  writers  to  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  the  hand  which  received  them  ;  memoirs  of  indi- 
viduals by  themselves  or  by  their  friends,  such  as  are  now 
published  by  the  pomp  of  vanity,  or  the  faithlessness  of  their 
possessors  ;  and  the  miscellaneous  collections  formed  by  all 
kinds  of  persons,  characteristic  of  all  countries  and  of  all 
eras,  materials  for  the  history  of  man  ! — records  of  the  force 
or  of  the  feebleness  of  the  human  understanding,  and  still  the 
monuments  of  their  passions  ! 

The  original  collectors  of  these  dispersed  manuscripts 
were  a  race  of  ingenuous  men  ;  silent  benefactors  of  man- 
kind, to  whom  justice  has  not  yet  been  fully  awarded  ;  but 
in  their  fervour  of  accumulation,  every  thing  in  a  manuscript 


298 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


state  bore  its  spell ;  acquisition  was  the  sole  point  aimed  at 
by  our  early  collectors,  and  to  this  these  searching  spirits 
sacrificed  their  fortunes,  their  ease,  and  their  days  ;  but  life 
would  have  been  too  short  to  'have  decided  on  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  manuscripts  flowing  in  a  stream  to  the  collec- 
tors ;  and  suppression,  even  of  the  disjointed  reveries  of 
madmen,  or  the  sensible  madness  of  projectors,  might  have 
been  indulging  a  capricious  taste,  or  what  has  proved  more 
injurious  to  historical  pursuits,  that  party-feeling  which  has 
frequently  annihilated  the  memorials  of  their  adversaries.* 

These  manuscript  collections  now  assume  a  formidable 
appearance.  A  toilsome  march  over  these  "Alps  rising 
over  Alps!"  a  voyage  in  "a  sea  without  a  shore!"  has 
turned  away  most  historians  from  their  severer  duties  ;  those 
who  have  grasped  at  early  celebrity  have  been  satisfied  to 
have  given  a  new  form  to,  rather  than  contributed  to  the  new 
matter  of  history.  The  very  sight  of  these  masses  of  history 
has  terrified  some  modern  historians.  When  Pere  Daniel 
undertook  a  history  of  France,  the  learned  Boivin,  the  king's 
librarian,  opened  for  his  inspection  an  immense  treasure  of 
charters,  and  another  of  royal  autograph  letters,  and  another 
of  private  correspondence  ;  treasures  reposing  in  fourteen 
hundred  folios  !  The  modern  historian  passed  two  hours 
impatiently  looking  over  them,  but  frightened  at  another 
plunge  into  the  gulf,  this  Curtius  of  history  would  not  immo- 
late himself  for  his  country  !  He  wrote  a  civil  letter  to  the 
librarian  for  his  "  supernumerary  kindness,"  but  insinuated 
that  he  could  write  a  very  readable  history  without  any  fur- 
ther aid  of  such  paperasses  or  "  paper-rubbish."  Pere  Dan- 
iel, therefore,  "  quietly  sat  down  to  his  history,"  copying 
others — a  compliment  which  was  never  returned  by  any  one: 
but  there  was  this  striking  novelty  in  his  "  readable  history," 
that,  according  to  the  accurate  computation  of  Count  Bou- 
lainvilliers,  Pere  Daniel's  history  of  France  contains  ten 

*  See  what  1  have  said  of  "  Suppressors  and  Dilapidators  of  Manu- 
scripts," Vol.  iii.  p.  200. 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


299 


thousand  blunders  !  The  same  circumstance  has  been  told 
me  by  a  living  historian  of  the  late  Gilbert  Stuart ;  who,  on 
some  manuscript  volumes  of  letters  being  pointed  out  to  him 
when  composing  his  history  of  Scotland,  confessed  that  "  what 
was  already  printed  was  more  than  he  was  able  to  read  !  " 
and  thus  much  for  his  theoretical  history,  written  to  run 
counter  to  another  theoretical  history,  being  Stuart  versus 
Robertson  !  They  equally  depend  on  the  simplicity  of  their 
readers,  and  the  charms  of  style  !  Another  historian,  An- 
quetil,  the  author  of  V Esprit  de  la  Ligue,  has  described  his 
embarrassment  at  an  inspection  of  the  contemporary  manu- 
scripts of  that  period.  After  thirteen  years  of  researches  to 
glean  whatever  secret  history  printed  books  afforded,  the 
author,  residing  in  the  country,  resolved  to  visit  the  royal 
library  at  Paris.  Monsieur  Melot  receiving  him  with  that 
kindness,  which  is  one  of  the  official  duties  of  the  public 
librarian  towards  the  studious,  opened  the  cabinets  in  which 
were  deposited  the  treasures  of  French  history. — "  This  is 
what  you  require  !  come  here  at  all  times,  and  you  shall  be 
attended  ! "  said  the  librarian  to  the  young  historian,  who 
stood  by  with  a  sort  of  shudder,  while  he  opened  cabinet 
after  cabinet.  The  intrepid  investigator  repeated  his  visits, 
looking  over  the  mass  as  chance  directed,  attacking  one  side, 
and  then  flying  to  another.  The  historian,  who  had  felt  no 
weariness  during  thirteen  years  among  printed  books,  dis- 
covered that  he  was  now  engaged  in  a  task,  apparently 
always  beginning,  and  never  ending !  The  "  Esprit  de  la 
Ligue  "  was  however  enriched  by  labours,  which  at  the  mo- 
ment appeared  so  barren. 

The  study  of  these  paperasses  is  not  perhaps  so  disgusting 
as  the  impatient  Pere  Daniel  imagined  ;  there  is  a  literary 
fascination  in  looking  over  the  same  papers  which  the  great 
characters  of  history  once  held  and  wrote  on ;  catching  from 
themselves  their  secret  sentiments ;  and  often  detecting  so 
many  of  their  unrecorded  actions  !  By  habit  the  toil  becomes 
light;  and  with  a  keen  inquisitive  spirit  even  delightful! 


300 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


For  what  is  more  delightful  to  the  curious  than  to  make  fresh 
discoveries  every  day  ?  Addison  has  a  true  and  pleasing 
observation  on  such  pursuits.  "  Our  employments  are  con- 
verted into  amusements,  so  that  even  in  those  objects  which 
were  indifferent,  or  even  displeasing  to  us,  the  mind  not  only 
gradually  loses  its  aversion,  but  conceives  a  certain  fondness 
and  affection  for  them."  Addison  illustrates  this  case  by 
one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  of  the  age,  who  by  habit  took 
incredible  pleasure  in  searching  into  rolls  and  records,  till  he 
preferred  them  to  Virgil  and  Cicero  !  The  faculty  of  curios- 
ity is  as  fervid,  and  even  as  refined  in  its  search  after  truth, 
as  that  of  taste  in  the  objects  of  imagination ;  and  the  more 
it  is  indulged,  the  more  exquisitely  it  is  enjoyed ! 

The  popular  historians  of  England  and  of  France  have, 
in  truth,  made  little  use  of  manuscript  researches.  Life  is 
very  short  for  long  histories ;  and  those  who  rage  with  an 
avidity  of  fame  or  profit  will  gladly  taste  the  fruit  which  they 
cannot  mature.  Researches  too  remotely  sought  after,  or  too 
slowly  acquired,  or  too  fully  detailed,  wrould  be  so  many 
obstructions  in  the  smooth  texture  of  a  narrative.  Our 
theoretical  historians  write  from  some  particular  and  precon- 
ceived result ;  unlike  Livy,  and  De  Thou,  and  Machiavel, 
who  describe  events  in  their  natural  order,  these  cluster  them 
together  by  the  fanciful  threads  of  some  political  or  moral 
theory,  by  which  facts  are  distorted,  displaced,  and  sometimes 
altogether  omitted  !  One  single  original  document  has  some- 
times shaken  into  dust  their  palladian  edifice  of  history.  At 
the  moment  Hume  was  sending  some  sheets  of  his  history  to 
press,  Murdin's  State  Papers  appeared.  And  we  are  highly 
amused  and  instructed  by  a  letter  of  our  historian  to  his  rival, 
Robertson,  who  probably  found  himself  often  in  the  same 
forlorn  situation.  Our  historian  discovered  in  that  collection 
what  compelled  him  to  retract  his  preconceived  system — he 
hurries  to  stop  the  press,  and  paints  his  confusion  and  his 
anxiety  with  all  the  ingenuous  simplicity  of  his  nature. 
"  We  are  all  in  the  wrong ! "  he  exclaims.    Of  Hume  I 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


301 


have  heard  that  certain  manuscripts  at  the  state-paper  office 
had  been  prepared  for  his  inspection  during  a  fortnight,  but 
he  never  could  muster  courage  to  pay  his  promised  visit. 
Satisfied  with  the  common  accounts,  and  the  most  obvious 
sources  of  history,  when  librarian  at  the  Advocates'  Library, 
where  yet  may  be  examined  the  books  he  used,  marked  by 
his  hand,  he  spread  the  volumes  about  the  sofa,  from  which 
he  rarely  rose  to  pursue  obscure  inquiries,  or  delay  by  fresh 
difficulties  the  page  which  every  day  was  growing  under  his 
charming  pen.  A  striking  proof  of  his  careless  happiness  I 
discovered  in  his  never  referring  to  the  perfect  edition  of 
Whitelocke's  Memorials  of  1732,  but  to  the  old  truncated 
and  faithless  one  of  1G82. 

Dr.  Birch  was  a  writer  with  no  genius  for  composition,  but 
one  to  whom  British  history  stands  more  indebted  than  to 
any  superior  author ;  his  incredible  love  of  labour,  in  tran- 
scribing with  his  own  hand  a  large  library  of  manuscripts 
from  originals  dispersed  in  public  and  in  private  repositories, 
has  enriched  the  British  Museum  by  thousands  of  the  most 
authentic  documents  of  genuine  secret  history.  He  once 
projected  a  collection  of  original  historical  letters,  for  which 
he  had  prepared  a  preface,  where  I  find  the  following  pas- 
sage :  "  It  is  a  more  important  service  to  the  public  to  con- 
tribute something  not  before  known  to  the  general  fund  of 
history,  than  to  give  new  form  and  colour  to  what  we  are 
already  possessed  of,  by  superadding  refinement  and  orna- 
ment, which  too  often  tend  to  disguise  the  real  state  of  the 
facts  ;  a  fault  not  to  be  atoned  for  by  the  pomp  of  style,  or 
even  the  fine  eloquence  of  the  historian."  This  was  an 
oblique  stroke  aimed  at  Robertson,  to  whom  Birch  had 
generously  opened  the  stores  of  history,  for  the  Scotch  his- 
torian had  needed  all  his  charity  ;  but  Robertson's  attractive 
inventions,  and  highly-finished  composition,  seduce  the  public 
taste ;  and  we  may  forgive  the  latent  spark  of  envy  in  the 
honest  feelings  of  the  man,  who  was  profoundly  skilled  in 
delving  in  the  native  beds  of  ore,  but  not  in  fashioning  it ; 


S02  TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 

and  whose  own  neglected  historical  works,  constructed  on  the 
true  principles  of  secret  history,  we  may  often  turn  over  to 
correct  the  erroneous,  the  prejudiced,  and  the  artful  accounts 
of  those  who  have  covered  their  faults  by  "the  pomp  of 
style,  and  the  eloquence  of  the  historian." 

The  large  manuscript  collections  of  original  documents, 
from  whence  may  be  drawn  what  I  have  called  positive 
secret  history,  are,  as  I  observed,  comparatively  of  modern 
existence.  Formerly  they  were  widely  dispersed  in  private 
hands  ;  and  the  nature  of  such  sources  of  historic  discovery 
but  rarely  occurred  to  our  writers.  Even  had  they  sought 
them,  their  access  must  have  been  partial  and  accidental. 
Lord  Hardwicke  has  observed,  that  there  are  still  many 
untouched  manuscript  collections  within  these  kingdoms, 
which,  through  the  ignorance  or  inattention  of  their  owners, 
are  condemned  to  dust  and  obscurity;  but  how  valuable  and 
essential  they  may  be  to  the  interests  of  authentic  history 
and  of  sacred  truth,  cannot  be  more  strikingly  demonstrated 
than  in  the  recent  publications  of  the  Marlborough  and  the 
Shrewsbury  papers  by  Archdeacon  Coxe.*  The  editor  was 
fully  authorized  to  observe,  "  It  is  singular  that  those  trans- 
actions should  either  have  been  passed  over  in  silence,  or 
imperfectly  represented  by  most  of  our  national  historians." 
Our  modern  history  would  have  been  a  mere  political 
romance,  without  the  astonishing  picture  of  William  and 
his  ministers,  exhibited  in  those  unquestionable  documents. 
Burnet  was  among  the  first  of  our  modern  historians  who 
showed  the  world  the  preciousness  of  such  materials,  in  his 

*  The  "Conway  papers"  remain  unpublished.  From  what  I  have 
already  been  favoured  with  the  sight  of,  I  may  venture  to  predict  that  our 
history  may  receive  from  them  some  important  accession.  The  reader 
may  find  a  lively  summary  of  the  contents  of  these  papers  in  Hoi-ace 
Walpole's  account  of  his  visit  to  Ragley,  in  his  letter  to  George  Montague, 
20th  August,  1758.  The  Right  Hon.  John  Wilson  Croker,  with  whom  the 
Marquis  of  Hertford  had  placed  the  disposal  of  the  Conway  papers,  is  also 
in  possession  of  the  Throckmorton  papers,  of  which  the  reader  may  like- 
wise observe  a  particular  notice  in  Sir  Henry  Wotton's  will,  in  Izaak 
Walton's  Lives.    Unsunned  treasures  lie  in  the  State-paper  office. 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


303 


History  of  the  Reformation,  which  he  largely  drew  from  the 
Cottonian  Collection.  Our  early  historians  only  repeated  a 
tale  ten  times  told.  Milton,  who  wanted  not  for  literary 
diligence,  had  no  fresh  stores  to  open  for  his  History  of  Eng- 
land ;  while  Hume  dispatches,  comparatively  in  a  few  pages, 
a  subject  which  has  afforded  to  the  fervent  diligence  of  my 
learned  friend  Sharon  Turner,  volumes  precious  to  the  anti- 
quary, the  lawyer,  and  the  philosopher. 

To  illustrate  my  idea  of  the  usefulness  and  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  secret  history,  I  fix  first  on  a  public  event, 
and  secondly  on  a  public  character  ;  both  remarkable  in  our 
own  modern  history,  and  both  serving  to  expose  the  fallacious 
appearances  of  popular  history  by  authorities  indisputably 
genuine.  The  event  is  the  Restoration  of  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond ;  and  the  character  is  that  of  Mary,  the  queen  of  Wil- 
liam the  Third. 

In  history  the  Restoration  of  Charles  appears  in  all  its 
splendour — the  king  is  joyfully  received  at  Dover,  and  the 
shore  is  covered  by  his  subjects  on  their  knees — crowds  of 
the  great  hurry  to  Canterbury — the  army  is  drawn  up,  in 
number  and  with  a  splendour  that  had  never  been  equalled 
— his  enthusiastic  reception  is  on  his  birthday,  for  that  was 
the  lucky  day  fixed  on  for  his  entrance  into  the  Metropolis — 
in  a  word,  all  that  is  told  in  history  describes  a  monarch  the 
most  powerful  and  the  most  happy.  One  of  the  tracts  of  the 
day,  entitled  "  England's  Triumph,"  in  the  mean  quaintness 
of  the  style  of  the  times  tells  us,  that  "  The  soldiery,  who  had 
hitherto  made  clubs  trump,  resolve  now  to  enthrone  the 
king  of  hearts"  Turn  to  the  faithful  memorialist,  who  so 
well  knew  the  secrets  of  the  king's  heart,  and  who  was  him- 
self an  actor  behind  the  curtain ;  turn  to  Clarendon,  in  his 
own  life ;  and  we  shall  find  that  the  power  of  the  king  was 
then  as  dubious  as  when  he  was  an  exile ;  and  his  feelings 
were  so  much  racked,  that  he  had  nearly  resolved  on  a  last 
flight. 

Clarendon,  in  noticing  the  temper  and  spirit  of  that  time, 


304  TRUE • SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


observes,  "  Whoever  reflects  upon  all  this  composition  of  con- 
tradictory wishes  and  expectations,  must  confess  that  the 
king  was  not  yet  the  master  of  the  kingdom,  nor  his  author- 
ity and  security  such  as  the  general  noise  and  acclamation, 
the  bells  and  the  bonfires,  proclaimed  it  to  be." — "  The  first 
mortification  the  king  met  with  as  soon  as  he  arrived  at  Can- 
terbury, within  three  hours  after  he  landed  at  Dover."  Clar- 
endon then  relates  how  many  the  king  found  there,  who,  while 
they  waited  with  joy  to  kiss  his  hand,  also  came  with  impor- 
tunate solicitations  for  themselves  ;  forced  him  to  give  them 
present  audience,  in  which  they  reckoned  up  the  insupport- 
able losses  undergone  by  themselves  or  their  fathers  ;  demand- 
ing some  grant,  or  promise  of  such  or  such  offices ;  some 
even  for  more !  "  pressing  for  two  or  three  with  such  confi- 
dence and  importunity,  and  with  such  tedious  discourses,  that 
the  king  was  extremely  nauseated  with  their  suits,  though 
his  modesty  knew  not  how  to  break  from  them  ;  that  he  no 
sooner  got  into  his  chamber,  which  for  some  hours  he  was 
not  able  to  do,  than  he  lamented  the  condition  to  which 
he  found  he  must  be  subject ;  and  did,  in  truth,  from  that 
minute,  contract  such  a  prejudice  against  some  of  those  per- 
sons." But  a  greater  mortification  was  to  follow,  and  one 
which  had  nearly  thrown  the  king  into  despair. 

General  Monk  had  from  the  beginning  to  this  instant 
acted  very  mysteriously,  never  corresponding  with  nor  an- 
swering a  letter  of  the  king's,  so  that  his  majesty  was  fre- 
quently doubtful  whether  the  general  designed  to  act  for  him- 
self or  for  the  king :  an  ambiguous  conduct  which  I  attribute 
to  the  power  his  wife  had  over  him,  who  was  in  the  opposite 
interest.  The  general,  in  his  rough  way,  presented  him  a 
large  paper,  with  about  seventy  names  for  his  privy  council, 
of  which  not  more  than  two  were  acceptable.  "  The  king," 
says  Clarendon,  "  was  in  more  than  ordinary  confusion,  for 
he  knew  not  well  what  to  think  of  the  general,  in  whose  ab- 
solute power  he  was — so  that  at  this  moment  his  majesty  was 
almost  alarmed  at  the  demand  and  appearance  of  things." 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


305 


The  genera]  afterwards  undid  this  unfavourable  appearance, 
by  acknowledging  that  the  list  was  drawn  up  by  his  wife, 
who  had  made  him  promise  to  present  it ;  but  he  permitted 
his  majesty  to  act  as  he  thought  proper.  At  that  moment 
General  Monk  was  more  king  than  Charles. 

We  have  not  yet  concluded.  When  Charles  met  the  army 
at  Blackheath,  50,000  strong,  "  he  knew  well  the  ill  constitu- 
tion of  the  army,  the  distemper  and  murmuring  that  was  in 
it,  and  how  many  diseases  and  convulsions  their  infant  loy- 
alty was  subject  to ;  that  how  united  soever  their  inclinations 
and  acclamations  seemed  to  be  at  Blackheath,  their  affections 
were  not  the  same — and  the  very  countenances  there  of  many 
officers,  as  well  as  soldiers,  did  sufficiently  manifest  that  they 
were  drawn  thither  to  a  service  they  were  not  delighted  in. 
The  old  soldiers  had  little  regard  for  their  new  officers  ;  and 
it  quickly  appeared,  by  the  select  and  affected  mixtures  of 
sullen  and  melancholic  parties  of  officers  and  soldiers." — And 
then  the  chancellor  of  human  nature  adds,  "And  in  this 
melancholic  and  perplexed  condition  the  king  and  all  his 
hopes  stood,  when  he  appeared  most  gay  and  exalted,  and 
wore  a  pleasantness  in  his  face  that  became  him,  and  looked 
like  as  full  an  assurance  of  his  security  as  was  possible  to 
put  on."  It  is  imagined  that  Louis  the  Eighteenth  would  be 
the  ablest  commentator  on  this  piece  of  secret  history,  and 
add  another  twin  to  Pierre  de  Saint  Julien's  "  Gemelles  ou 
Pareiles,"  an  old  French  treatise  of  histories  which  resemble 
one  another:  a  volume  so  scarce,  that  I  have  never  met 
with  it. 

Burnet  informs  us,  that  when  Queen  Mary  held  .the  ad- 
ministration of  government  during  the  absence  of  William, 
it  was  imagined  by  some,  that  as  "  every  woman  of  sense 
loved  to  be  meddling,  they  concluded  that  she  had  but  a 
small  portion  of  it,  because  she  lived  so  abstracted  from  all 
affairs."  He  praises  her  exemplary  behaviour  ;  "  regular  in 
her  devotions,  much  in  her  closet,  read  a  great  deal,  was 
often  busy  at  work,  and  seemed  to  employ  her  time  and 

VOL.  IV.  20 


30G 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


thoughts  in  any  thing  rather  than  matters  of  state.  Her 
conversation  was  lively  and  obliging ;  every  thing  in  her  was 
easy  and  natural.  The  king  told  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 
that  though  he  could  not  hit  on  the  right  way  of  pleasing 
England,  he  was  confident  she  would,  and  that  we  should  all 
be  very  happy  under  her."  Such  is  the  miniature  of  the 
queen  which  Burnet  offers  ;  we  see  nothing  but  her  tranquil- 
lity, her  simplicity,  and  her  carelessness,  amidst  the  impor- 
tant transactions  passing  under  her  eye  ;  but  I  lift  the  curtain 
from  a  larger  picture.  The  distracted  state  amidst  which 
the  queen  lived,  the  vexations,  the  secret  sorrows,  the  agonies 
and  the  despair  of  Mary  in  the  absence  of  William,  nowhere 
appear  in  history !  and  as  we  see,  escaped  the  ken  of  the 
Scotch  bishop !  They  were  reserved  for  the  curiosity  and 
instruction  of  posterity;  and  were  found  by  Dalrymple,  in 
the  letters  of  Mary  to  her  husband,  in  king  William's  cabi- 
net. It  will  be  well  to  place  under  the  eye  of  the  reader  the 
suppressed  cries  of  this  afflicted  queen  at  the  time  when 
"  every  thing  in  her  was  so  easy  and  natural,  employing  her 
time  and  thoughts  in  any  thing  rather  than  matters  of  state — 
often  busy  at  work  !  " 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  the  pangs  of  the  queen  for  the  fate  of 
William — or  her  deadly  suspicions  that  many  were  unfaithful 
about  her ;  a  battle  lost  might  have  been  fatal ;  a  conspiracy 
might  have  undone  what  even  a  victory  had  obtained ;  the 
continual  terrors  she  endured  were  such,  that  we  might  be 
at  a  loss  to  determine  who  suffered  most,  those  who  had  been 
expelled  from,  or  those  who  had  ascended,  the  throne. 

So  far  was  the  queen  from  not  "  employing  her  thoughts  " 
on  "matters  of  state,"  that  every  letter,  usually  written 
towards  evening,  chronicles  the  conflicts  of  the  day ;  she 
records  not  only  events,  but  even  dialogues  and  personal 
characteristics  ;  hints  her  suspicions,  and  multiplies  her  fears  ; 
her  attention  was  incessant — "  I  never  write  but  what  I  think 
others  do  not ; "  and  her  terrors  were  as  ceaseless, — "  I  pray 
God,  send  you  back  quickly,  for  I  see  all  breaking  out  into 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


.307 


flames."  The  queen's  difficulties  were  not  eased  by  a  single 
confidential  intercourse.  On  one  occasion  she  observes,  "  As 
I  do  not  know  what  I  ought  to  speak,  and  when  not,  1  am  as 
silent  as  can  be/'  "  I  ever  fear  not  doing  well,  and  trust  to 
what  nobody  says  but  you.  It  seems  to  me  that  every  one 
is  afraid  of  themselves. — I  am  very  uneasy  in  one  thing, 
which  is  want  of  somebody  to  speak  my  mind  freely  to,  for 
it's  a  great  constraint  to  think  and  be  silent ;  and  there  is 
so  much  matter,  that  I  am  one  of  Solomon's  fools,  who  am 
ready  to  burst.  I  must  tell  you  again  how  Lord  Monmouth 
endeavours  to  frighten  me,  and  indeed  things  have  but  a 
melancholy  prospect."  She  had  indeed  reasons  to  fear  Lord 
Monmouth,  who,  it  appears,  divulged  all  the  secrets  of  the 
royal  councils  to  Major  Wildman,  who  was  one  of  our  old 
republicans ;  and,  to  spread  alarm  in  the  privy  council,  con- 
veyed in  lemon-juice  all  their  secrets  to  France,  often  on  the 
very  day  they  had  passed  in  council !  They  discovered  the 
fact,  and  every  one  suspected  the  other  as  the  traitor !  Lord 
Lincoln  even  once  assured  her,  that  "the  Lord  President 
and  all  in  general,  who  are  in  trust,  were  rogues."  Her 
council  was  composed  of  factions,  and  the  queen's  suspicions 
were  rather  general  than  particular :  for  she  observes  on 
them,  "  Till  now  I  thought  you  had  given  me  wrong  charac- 
ters of  men  ;  but  now  I  see  they  answer  my  expectation  of 
being  as  little  of  a  mind  as  of  a  body." — For  a  final  extract, 
take  this  full  picture  of  royal  misery — "  I  must  see  company 
on  my  set  days ;  I  must  play  twice  a  week ;  nay,  I  must 
laugh  and  talk,  though  never  so  much  against  my  will:  I 
believe  I  dissemble  very  ill  to  those  who  know  me  ;  at  least, 
it  is  a  great  constraint  to  myself,  yet  I  must  endure  it.  All 
my  motions  are  so  watched,  and  all  I  do  so  observed,  that  if 
I  eat  less,  or  speak  less,  or  look  more  grave,  all  is  lost  in  the 
opinion  of  the  world  ;  so  that  I  have  this  misery  added  to 
that  of  your  absence,  that  I  must  grin  when  my  heart  is 
ready  to  break,  and  talk  when  my  heart  is  so  oppressed  that 
I  can  scarce  breathe.    I  go  to  Kensington  as  often  as  I  can 


308 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


for  air ;  but  then  I  never  can  be  quite  alone,  neither  can  I 
complain — that  would  be  some  ease  ;  but  I  have  nobody 
whose  humour  and  circumstances  agree  with  mine  enough  to 
speak  my  mind  freely  to.  Besides  I  must  hear  of  business, 
which  being  a  thing  I  am  so  new  in,  and  so  unfit  for,  does 
but  break  my  brains  the  more,  and  not  ease  my  heart." 

Thus  different  from  the  representation  of  Burnet  was  the 
actual  state  of  Queen  Mary :  and  I  suspect  that  our  warm 
and  vehement  bishop  had  but  little  personal  knowledge  of 
her  majesty,  notwithstanding  the  elaborate  character  of  the 
queen  which  he  has  given  in  her  funeral  eulogium. — He 
must  have  known  that  she  did  not  always  sympathize  with 
his  party-feelings ;  for  the  queen  writes,  "  The  Bishop  of 
Salisbury  has  made  a  long  thundering  sermon  this  morning, 
which  he  has  been  with  me  to  desire  to  print ;  which  I  could 
not  refuse,  though  I  should  not  have  ordered  it,  for  reasons 
which  I  told  him."  Burnet  (whom  I  am  very  far  from  calling 
what  an  inveterate  Tory,  Edward  Earl  of  Oxford,  does  in 
one  of  his  manuscript  notes,  "  that  lying  Scot ")  unques- 
tionably has  told  many  truths  in  his  garrulous  page  ;  but  the 
cause  in  which  he  stood  so  deeply  engaged,  coupled  to  his 
warm  sanguine  temper,  may  have  sometimes  dimmed  his 
sagacity,  so  as  to  have  caused  him  to  have  mistaken,  as  in 
the  present  case,  a  mask  for  a  face,  particularly  at  a  time 
when  almost  every  individual  appears  to  have  worn  one ! 

Both  these  cases  of  Charles  the  Second  and  Queen  Mary 
show  the  absolute  necessity  of  researches  into  secret  history, 
to  correct  the  appearances  and  the  fallacies  which  so  often 
deceive  us  in  public  history. 

"  The  appetite  for  Remains,"  as  the  noble  author  whom  I 
have  already  alluded  to  calls  it,  may  then  be  a  very  whole- 
some one,  if  it  provide  the  only  materials  by  which  our 
popular  histories  can  be  corrected,  and  since  it  often  infuses 
a  freshness  into  a  story  which,  after  having  been  copied 
from  book  to  book,  inspires  another  to  tell  it  for  the  tenth 
time !    Thus  are  the  sources  of  secret  history  unsuspected 


TRUE  SOURCES  OF  SECRET  HISTORY. 


309 


by  the  idler  and  the  superficial,  among  those  masses  of  un- 
touched manuscripts — that  subterraneous  history  ! — which 
indeed  may  terrify  the  indolent,  bewilder  the  inexperienced, 
and  confound  the  injudicious,  if  they  have  not  acquired  the 
knowledge  which  not  only  decides  on  facts  and  opinions,  but 
on  the  authorities  which  have  furnished  them.  Popular  his- 
torians have  written  to  their  readers  ;  each  with  different 
views,  but  all  alike  form  the  open  documents  of  history ; 
like  fee'd  advocates,  they  declaim,  or  like  special  pleaders, 
they  keep  only  on  one  side  of  their  case  :  they  are  seldom 
zealous  to  push  on  their  cross-examinations ;  for  they  come 
to  gain  their  cause,  and  not  to  hazard  it ! 

Time  will  make  the  present  age  as  obsolete  as  the  last,  for 
our  sons  will  cast  a  new  light  over  the  ambiguous  scenes 
which  distract  their  fathers ;  they  will  know  how  some  things 
happened,  for  which  we  cannot  account ;  they  will  bear  wit- 
ness to  how  many  characters  we  have  mistaken ;  they  will 
be  told  many  of  those  secrets  which  our  contemporaries  hide 
from  us  ;  they  will  pause  at  the  ends  of  our  beginnings  ;  they 
will  read  the  perfect  story  of  man,  which  can  never  be  told 
while  it  is  proceeding.  All  this  is  the  possession  of  posterity, 
because  they  will  judge  without  our  passions;  and  all  this 
we  ourselves  have  been  enabled  to  possess  by  the  secret 
history  of  the  last  two  ages!  * 

*  Since  this  article  has  been  sent  to  press  I  rise  from  reading  one  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review  on  Lord  Orford's  and  Lord  Waldegrave's  Memoirs. 
This  is  one  of  the  very  rare  articles  which  could  only  come  from  the  hand 
of  a  master,  long  exercised  in  the  studies  he  criticizes.  The  critic,  or 
rather  the  historian,  observes,  that  "of  a  period  remarkable  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  our  present  system  of  government,  no  authentic  materials  had 
yet  appeared.  Events  of  public  notoriety  are  to  be  found,  though  often 
inaccurately  told,  in  our  common  histories;  but  the  secret  springs  of 
action,  the  private  views  and  motives  of  individuals,  &c.  are  as  little 
known  to  us,  as  if  the  events  to  which  they  relate  had  taken  place  in 
China  or  J:\pan."  The  clear,  connected,  dispassionate,  and  circumstan- 
tial narrative,  with  which  he  has  enriched  the  stores  of  English  history, 
is  drawn  from  the  sources  of  secrkt  history  ;  from  published  memoirs  and 
contemporary  correspondence. 


310 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 

Men  of  genius  have  usually  been  condemned  to  compose 
their  finest  works,  which  are  usually  their  earliest  ones,  under 
the  roof  of  a  garret ;  and  few  literary  characters  have  lived 
like  Pliny  and  Voltaire,  in  a  villa  or  chateau  of  their  own. 
It  has  not  therefore  often  happened,  that  a  man  of  genius 
could  raise  local  emotions  by  his  own  intellectual  suggestions. 
Ariosto,  who  built  a  palace  in  his  verse,  lodged  himself  in  a 
small  house,  and  found  that  stanzas  and  stones  were  not  put 
together  at  the  same  rate :  old  Montaigne  has  left  a  descrip- 
tion of  his  library  ;  "  over  the  entrance  of  my  house,  where  I 
view  my  court-yards,  and  garden,  and  at  once  survey  all  the 
operations  of  my  family  !  " 

There  is,  however,  a  feeling  among  literary  men,  of  build- 
ing up  their  own  elegant  fancies,  and  giving  a  permanency  to 
their  own  tastes ;  we  dwell  on  their  favourite  scenes  as  a 
sort  of  portraits,  and  we  eagerly  collect  those  few  prints, 
which  are  their  only  vestiges.  A  collection  might  be  formed 
of  such  literary  residences  chosen  for  their  amenity  and  their 
retirement,  and  adorned  by  the  objects  of  their  studies  ;  from 
that  of  the  younger  Pliny,  who  called  his  villa  of  literary 
leisure  by  the  endearing  term  of  villula,  to  that  of  Cassio- 
dorus,  the  prime  minister  of  Theodoric,  who  has  left  so 
magnificent  a  description  of  his  literary  retreat,  where  all 
the  elegancies  of  life  were  at  hand ;  where  the  gardeners 
and  the  agriculturists  laboured  on  scientific  principles ;  and 
where,  amidst  gardens  and  parks,  stood  his  extensive  library, 
with  scribes  to  multiply  his  manuscripts ; — from  Tycho 
Brahe's,  who  built  a  magnificent  astronomical  house  on  an 
island,  which  he  named  after  the  sole  objects  of  his  musings 
Uranienburgh,  or  the  castle  of  the  heavens  ; — to  that  of  Eve- 
lyn, who  first  began  to  adorn  Wotton,  by  building  "  a  little 
study,"  till  many  years  after  he  dedicated  the  ancient  house 
to  contemplation,  among  the  "  delicious  streams  and  venerable 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 


Sll 


woods,  the  gardens,  the  fountains,  and  the  groves,  most  tempt- 
ing for  a  great  person  and  a  wanton  purse ;  and  indeed  gave 
one  of  the  first  examples  to  that  elegancy  since  so  much  in 
vogue." — From  Pope,  whose  little  garden  seemed  to  multiply 
its  scenes  by  a  glorious  union  of  nobility  and  literary  men 
conversing  in  groups  ; — down  to  lonely  Shenstone,  whose 
"  rural  elegance,"  as  he  entitles  one  of  his  odes,  compelled 
him  to  mourn  over  his  hard  fate,  when 

 "  Expense 

Had  lavish' d  thousand  ornaments,  and  taught 
Convenience  to  perplex  him,  Art  to  pall, 
Pomp  to  deject,  and  Beauty  to  displease." 

We  have  all  by  heart  the  true  and  delightful  reflection  of 
Johnson  on  local  associations,  when  the  scene  we  tread  sug- 
gests to  us  the  men  or  the  deeds,  which  have  left  their  celeb- 
rity to  the  spot.  We  are  in  the  presence  of  their  fame,  and 
feel  its  influence ! 

A  literary  friend,  whom  a  hint  of  mine  had  induced  to 
visit  the  old  tower  in  the  garden  of  BufFon,  where  the  sage 
retired  every  morning  to  compose,  passed  so  long  a  time  in 
that  lonely  apartment,  as  to  have  raised  some  solicitude 
among  the  honest  folks  of  Montbar,  who  having  seen  "  the 
Englishman"  enter,  but  not  return,  during  a  heavy  thunder- 
storm which  had  occurred  in  the  interval,  informed  the  good 
mayor,  who  came  in  due  form,  to  notify  the  ambiguous  state 
of  the  stranger.  My  friend  is,  as  is  well  known,  a  genius  of 
that  cast,  who  could  pass  two  hours  in  the  Tower  of  Bi(ffo?i, 
without  being  aware  that  he  had  been  all  that  time  occupied 
by  suggestions  of  ideas  and  reveries,  which  in  some  minds 
such  a  locality  may  excite.  He  was  also  busied  with  his 
pencil ;  for  he  has  favoured  me  with  two  drawings  of  the 
interior  and  the  exterior  of  this  old  tower  in  the  garden :  the 
nakedness  within  can  only  be  compared  to  the  solitude  with- 
out. Such  was  the  studying-room  of  BufFon,  where  his  eye 
resting  on  no  object,  never  interrupted  the  unity  of  his  medi 
tations  on  nature. 


312 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 


In  return  for  my  friend's  kindness,  it  has  cost  me,  I  think, 
two  hours,  in  attempting  to  translate  the  beautiful  picture  of 
this  literary  retreat,  which  Vicq  d'Azyr  has  finished  with  all 
the  warmth  of  a  votary.  "At  Montbar,  in  the  midst  of  an 
ornamented  garden,  is  seen  an  antique  tower ;  it  was  there 
that  BufFon  wrote  the  History  of  Nature,  and  from  that  spot 
his  fame  spread  through  the  universe.  There  he  came  at 
sunrise,  and  no  one,  however  importunate,  was  suffered  to 
trouble  him.  The  calm  of  the  morning  hour,  the  first  war- 
bling of  the  birds,  the  varied  aspect  of  the  country,  all  at 
that  moment  which  touched  the  senses,  recalled  him  to  his 
model.  Free,  independent,  he  wandered  in  his  walks ;  there 
was  he  seen  with  quickened  or  with  slow  steps,  or  standing 
wrapped  in  thought,  sometimes  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
heavens  in  the  moment  of  inspiration,  as  if  satisfied  with  the 
thought  that  so  profoundly  occupied  his  soul ;  sometimes, 
collected  within  himself,  he  sought  what  would  not  always 
be  found;  or  at  the  moments  of  producing,  he  wrote,  he 
effaced,  and  rewrote,  to  efface  once  more ;  thus  he  harmo- 
nized, in  silence,  all  the  parts  of  his  composition,  which  he 
frequently  repeated  to  himself,  till,  satisfied  with  his  correc- 
tions, he  seemed  to  repay  himself  for  the  pains  of  his  beauti- 
ful prose,  by  the  pleasure  he  found  in  declaiming  it  aloud. 
Thus  he  engraved  it  in  his  .memory,  and  would  recite  it  to 
his  friends,  or  induce  some  to  read  it  to  him.  At  those 
moments  he  was  himself  a  severe  judge,  and  would  again 
recompose  it,  desirous  of  attaining  to  that  perfection  which 
is  denied  to  the  impatient  writer." 

A  curious  circumstance,  connected  with  local  associations, 
occurred  to  that  extraordinary  oriental  student  Fourmont. 
Originally  he  belonged  to  a  religious  community,  and  never 
failed  in  performing  his  offices ;  but  he  was  expelled  by  the 
superior  for  an  irregularity  of  conduct,  not  likely  to  have 
become  contagious  through  the  brotherhood — he  frequently 
prolonged  his  studies  far  into  the  night,  and  it  was  possible 
that  the  house  might  be  burnt  by  such  superfluity  of  learning. 


LITE R A RY  R ESI DENCES. 


3J3 


Fourmont  retreated  to  the  college  of  Montaign,  where  he 
occupied  the  very  chambers  which  had  formerly  been  those 
of  Erasmus ;  a  circumstance  which  contributed  to  excite  his 
emulation,  and  to  hasten  his  studies.  He  who  smiles  at  the 
force  of  such  emotions,  only  proves  that  he  has  not  ex- 
perienced what  are  real  and  substantial  as  the  scene  itself — 
for  those  who  are  concerned  in  them.  Pope,  who  had  far 
more  enthusiasm  in  his  poetical  disposition  than  is  generally 
understood,  was  extremely  susceptible  of  the  literary  associa- 
tions with  localities  :  one  of  the  volumes  of  his  Homer,  was 
begun  and  finished  in  an  old  tower  over  the  chapel  of  Stanton 
Harcourt ;  and  he  has  perpetuated  the  event,  if  not  conse- 
crated the  place,  by  scratching  with  a  diamond  on  a  pane  of 
stained  glass  this  inscription : — 

"  In  the  year  1718 
Alexander  Pope 
Finished  here 
The  fifth  volume  of  Homer."  * 

It  was  the  same  feeling  which  induced  him  one  day,  when 
taking  his  usual  walk  with  Harte  in  the  Haymarket,  to  desire 
Harte  to  enter  a  little  shop,  where  going  up  three  pair  of 
stairs  into  a  small  room,  Pope  said,  "  In  this  garret  Addison 
wrote  his  Campaign  !  "  Nothing  less  than  a  strong  feeling 
impelled  the  poet  to  ascend  this  garret — it  was  a  consecrated 
spot  to  his  eye ;  and  certainly  a  curious  instance  of  the  power 
of  genius  contrasted  with  its  miserable  locality !  Addison, 
whose  mind  had  fought  through  "  a  campaign  !  "  in  a  garret, 
could  he  have  called  about  him  "the  pleasures  of  imagina- 
tion," had  probably  planned  a  house  of  literary  repose, 
where  all  parts  would  have  been  in  harmony  with  his 
mind. 

Such  residences  of  men  of  genius  have  been  enjoyed  by 
some ;  and  the  vivid  descriptions  which  they  have  left  us 

*  On  a  late  inquh-y  it  appears  that  this  consecrated  pane  has  been  re- 
moved— and  the  relic  is  said  to  be  preserved  at  Nuneham. 


314 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 


convey  something  of  the  delightfulness  which  charmed  their 
studious  repose. 

The  Italian  Paul  Jovius  has  composed  more  than  three 
hundred  concise  eulogies  of  statesmen,  warriors,  and  literary 
men,  of  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries  ; 
but  the  occasion  which  induced  him  to  compose  them  is  per- 
haps more  interesting  than  the  compositions. 

Jovius  had  a  villa,  situated  on  a  peninsula,  bordered  by 
the  lake  of  Como.  It  was  built  on  the  ruins  of  the  villa  of 
Pliny,  and  in  his  time  the  foundations  were  still  visible. 
When  the  surrounding  lake  was  calm,  the  sculptured  marbles, 
the  trunks  of  columns,  and  the  fragments  of  those  pyramids 
which  had  once  adorned  the  residence  of  the  friend  of  Trajan, 
were  still  viewed  in  its  lucid  bosom.  Jovius  was  the  enthu- 
siast of  literature,  and  the  leisure  which  it  loves.  He  was 
an  historian,  with  the  imagination  of  a  poet,  and  though  a 
Christian  prelate,  almost  a  worshipper  of  the  sweet  fictions  of 
pagan  mythology;  and  when  his  pen  was  kept  pure  from 
satire  or  adulation,  to  which  it  was  too  much  accustomed,  it 
becomes  a  pencil.  He  paints  with  rapture  his  gardens  bathed 
by  the  waters  of  the  lake ;  the  shade  and  freshness  of  his 
woods ;  his  green  slopes ;  his  sparkling  fountains,  the  deep 
silence  and  calm  of  his  solitude  !  A  statue  was  raised  in  his 
gardens  to  Nature  !  In  his  hall  stood  a  fine  statue  of  Apollo, 
and  the  Muses  around,  with  their  attributes.  His  library 
was  guarded  by  a  Mercury,  and  there  was  an  apartment 
adorned  with  Doric  columns,  and  with  pictures  of  the  most 
pleasing  subjects  dedicated  to  the  Graces !  Such  was  the 
interior!  Without,  the  transparent  lake  here  spread  its 
broad  mirror,  and  there  was  seen  luminously  winding  by 
banks  covered  with  olives  and  laurels ;  in  the  distance,  towns, 
promontories,  hills  rising  in  an  amphitheatre,  blushing  with 
vines,  and  the  first  elevation  of  the  Alps,  covered  with 
woods  and  pasture,  and  sprinkled  with  herds  and  flocks. 

It  was  in  a  central  spot  of  this  enchanting  habitation  that 
a  cabinet  or  gallery  was  erected,  where  Jovius  had  collected 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 


315 


with  prodigal  cost  the  portraits  of  celebrated  men  ;  and  it 
was  to  explain  and  to  describe  the  characteristics  of  these 
illustrious  names  that  he  had  composed  his  eulogies.  This 
collection  became  so  remarkable,  that  the  great  men  his 
contemporaries  presented  our  literary  collector  with  their 
own  portraits,  among  whom  the  renowned  Fernandez 
Cortes  sent  Jovius  his  before  he  died,  and  probably  others 
who  were  less  entitled  to  enlarge  the  collection  ;  but  it  is 
equally  probable  that  our  caustic  Jovius  would  throw  them 
aside.  Our  historian  had  often  to  describe  men  more  famous 
than  virtuous ;  sovereigns,  politicians,  poets,  and  philosophers, 
men  of  all  ranks,  countries,  and  ages,  formed  a  crowded 
scene  of  men  of  genius  or  of  celebrity;  sometimes  a  few 
lines  compress  their  character,  and  sometimes  a  few  pages 
excite  his  fondness.  If  he  sometimes  adulates  the  living,  we 
may  pardon  the  illusions  of  a  contemporary ;  but  he  has  the 
honour  of  satirizing  some  by  the  honest  freedom  of  a  pen 
which  occasionally  broke  out  into  premature  truths. 

Such  was  the  inspiration  of  literature  and  leisure  which 
had  embellished  the  abode  of  Jovius,  and  had  raised  in  the 
midst  of  the  lake  of  Como  a  cabinet  of  portraits ;  a  noble 
tribute  to  those  who  are  "  the  salt  of  the  earth." 

We  possess  prints  of  Rubens's  house  at  Antwerp.  That 
princely  artist  perhaps  first  contrived  for  his  studio  the  cir- 
cular apartment  with  a  dome,  like  the  rotunda  of  the  Pan- 
theon, where  the  light  descending  from  an  aperture  or  window 
at  the  top,  sent  down  a  single  equal  light, — that  perfection  of 
light  which  distributes  its  magical  effects  on  the  objects 
beneath.  Bellori  describes  it  una  stanza  rotonda  con  un  solo 
occhio  in  cima ;  the  solo  occhio  is  what  the  French  term 
ceil  de  bceuf;  we  ourselves  want  this  single  eye  in  our  tech- 
nical language  of  art.  This  was  his  precious  museum,  where 
he  had  collected  a  vast  number  of  books,  which  were  inter- 
mixed with  his  marbles,  statues,  cameos,  intaglios,  and  all 
that  variety  of  the  riches  of  art  which  he  had  drawn  from 
Rome :  but  the  walls  did  not  yield  in  value ;  for  they  were 


316 


LITERARY  RESIDENCES. 


covered  by  pictures  of  his  own  composition,  or  copies  by  his 
own  hand,  made  at  Venice  and  Madrid,  of  Titian  and  Paul 
Veronese.  No  foreigners,  men  of  letters,  or  lovers  of  the 
arts,  or  even  princes,  would  pass  through  Antwerp  without 
visiting  the  house  of  Rubens,  to  witness  the  animated  resi- 
dence of  genius,  and  the  great  man  who  had  conceived  the 
idea.  Yet,  great  as  was  his  mind,  and  splendid  as  were  the 
habits  of  his  life,  he  could  not  resist  the  entreaties  of  the 
hundred  thousand  florins  of  our  Duke  of  Buckingham,  to 
dispose  of  this  studio.  The  great  artist  could  not,  however, 
abandon  for  ever  the  delightful  contemplations  he  was  depriv- 
ing himself  of ;  and  as  substitutes  for  the  miracles  of  art  he 
had  lost,  he  solicited  and  obtained  leave  to  replace  them  by 
casts  which  were  scrupulously  deposited  in  the  places  where 
the  originals  had  stood. 

Of  this  feeling  of  the  local  residences  of  genius,  the 
Italians  appear  to  have  been,  not  perhaps  more  susceptible 
than  other  people,  but  more  energetic  in  their  enthusiasm. 
Florence  exhibits  many  monuments  of  this  sort.  In  the 
neighbourhood  of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  Zimmerman  has 
noticed  a  house  of  the  celebrated  Viviani,  which  is  a  singular 
monument  of  gratitude  to  his  illustrious  master  Galileo. 
The  front  is  adorned  with  the  bust  of  this  father  of  science, 
and  between  the  windows  are  engraven  accounts  of  the  dis- 
coveries of  Galileo ;  it  is  the  most  beautiful  biography  of 
genius  !  Yet  another  still  more  eloquently  excites  our  emo- 
tions— the  house  of  Michael  Angelo :  his  pupils,  in  perpet- 
ual testimony  of  their  admiration  and  gratitude,  have  orna- 
mented it  with  all  the  leading  features  of  his  life  ;  the  very 
soul  of  this  vast  genius  put  in  action :  this  is  more  than  bio- 
graphy ! — it  is  living  as  with  a  contemporary  ! 


WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF?  317 


WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF? 

The  political  economist  replies  that  it  is  ! 

One  of  our  old  dramatic  writers,  who  witnessed  the  sin- 
gular extravagance  of  dress  among  the  modellers  of  fashion, 
our  nobility,  condemns  their  "  superfluous  bravery,"  echoing 
the  popular  cry, 

"  There  are  a  sort  of  men,  whose  coining  heads 
Are  mints  of  all  new  fashions,  that  have  done 
More  hurt  to  the  kingdom,  by  superfluous  bravery, 
Which  the  foolish  gentry  imitate,  than  a  war 
Or  a  long  famine.    All  the  treasure  by 
This  foul  excess  is  got  into  Ike  merchants', 
Embroiderers',  silk-men' 's,  jewellers' ',  tailors'  hands, 
And  the  tJiird  part  of  the  land  loo!  the  nobility 
Engrossing  titles  only." 

Our  poet  might  have  been  startled  at  the  reply  of  our 
political  economist.  If  the  nobility,  in  follies  such  as  these, 
only  preserved  their  "  titles,"  while  their  "  lands  "  were  dis- 
persed among  the  industrious  classes,  the  people  were  not 
sufferers.  The  silly  victims  ruining  themselves  by  their 
excessive  luxury,  or  their  costly  dress,  as  it  appears  some 
did,  was  an  evil  which,  left  to  its  own  course,  must  check 
itself ;  if  the  rich  did  not  spend,  the  poor  would  starve. 
Luxury  is  the  cure  of  that  unavoidable  evil  in  society — 
great  inequality  of  fortune  !  Political  economists  therefore 
tell  us,  that  any  regulations  would  be  ridiculous  which,  as 
Lord  Bacon  expresses  it,  should  serve  for  "  the  repressing 
of  waste  and  excess  by  sumptuary  laws."  Adam  Smith  is 
not  only  indignant  at  "  sumptuary  laws,"  but  asserts,  with  a 
democratic  insolence  of  style,  that  "  it  is  the  highest  imperti- 
nence and  presumption  in  kings  and  ministers  to  pretend  to 
watch  over  the  economy  of  private  people,  and  to  restrain 
their  expense  by  sumptuary  laws.  They  are  themselves 
always  the  greatest  spendthrifts  in  the  society ;  let  them 


318     WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF? 


look  well  after  their  own  expense,  and  they  may  safely  trust 
private  people  with  theirs.  If  their  own  extravagance  does 
not  ruin  the  state,  that  of  their  subjects  never  will."  "We  must 
therefore  infer,  that  governments  by  extravagance  may  ruin 
a  state,  but  that  individuals  enjoy  the  remarkable  privilege 
of  ruining  themselves,  without  injuring  society !  Adam 
Smith  afterwards  distinguishes  two  sorts  of  luxury :  the  one 
exhausting  itself  in  "durable  commodities,  as  in  buildings, 
furniture,  books,  statues,  pictures,"  will  increase  "the  opu- 
lence of  a  nation ; "  but  of  the  other,  wasting  itself  in  dress 
and  equipages,  in  frivolous  ornaments,  jewels,  baubles, 
trinkets,  &c.  he  acknowledges  "  no  trace  or  vestige  would 
remain  ;  and  the  effects  of  ten  or  twenty  years'  profusion 
would  be  as  completely  annihilated  as  if  they  had  never 
existed."  There  is,  therefore,  a  greater  and  a  lesser  evil  in 
this  important  subject  of  the  opulent,  unrestricted  by  any 
law,  ruining  his  whole  generation. 

"Where  "  the  wealth  of  nations "  is  made  the  solitary 
standard  of  their  prosperity,  it  becomes  a  fertile  source  of 
errors  in  the  science  of  morals  ;  and  the  happiness  of  the  in- 
dividual is  then  too  frequently  sacrificed  to  what  is  called  the 
prosperity  of  the  state.  If  an  individual,  in  the  pride  of 
luxury  and  selfism,  annihilates  the  fortunes  of  his  whole 
generation,  untouched  by  the  laws  as  a  criminal,  he  leaves 
behind  him  a  race  of  the  discontented  and  the  seditious,  who, 
having  sunk  in  the  scale  of  society,  have  to  reascend  from 
their  degradation  by  industry  and  by  humiliation  ;  but  for 
the  work  of  industry  their  habits  have  made  them  inexpert ; 
and  to  humiliation,  their  very  rank  presents  a  perpetual 
obstacle. 

Sumptuary  laws,  so  often  enacted,  and  so  often  repealed, 
and  always  eluded,  were  the  perpetual,  but  ineffectual, 
attempts  of  all  governments,  to  restrain  what,  perhaps, 
cannot  be  restrained — criminal  folly !  And  to  punish  a  man 
for  having  ruined  himself  would  usually  be  to  punish  a  most 
contrite  penitent. 


WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF?  319 


It  is  not  surprising  that  before  "private  vices  were  con- 
sidered as  public  benefits,"  the  governors  of  nations  instituted 
sumptuary  laws — for  the  passion  for  pageantry,  and  an  in- 
credible prodigality  in  dress,  were  continually  impoverishing 
great  families — more  equality  of  wealth  has  now  rather  sub- 
dued the  form  of  private  ruin  than  laid  this  evil  domestic 
spirit.  The  incalculable  expenditure  and  the  blaze  of 
splendour,  of  our  ancestors,  may  startle  the  incredulity  of 
our  elegantes.  We  find  men  of  rank  exhausting  their  wealth 
and  pawning  their  castles,  and  then  desperately  issuing  from 
them,  heroes  for  a  crusade,  or  brigands  for  their  neighbour- 
hood ! — and  this  frequently  from  the  simple  circumstance  of 
having  for  a  short  time  maintained  some  gorgeous  chivalric 
festival  on  their  own  estates,  or  from  having  melted  thousands 
of  acres  into  cloth  of  gold  ;  their  sons  were  left  to  beg  their 
bread  on  the  estates  which  they  were  to  have  inherited. 

It  was  when  chivalry  still  charmed  the  world  by  the  re- 
mains of  its  seductive  splendours,  towards  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  that  I  find  an  instance  of  this  kind  occur- 
ring in  the  Pas  de  Sandricourt,  which  was  held  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  sieur  of  that  name.  It  is  a  memorable 
affair,  not  only  for  us  curious  inquirers  after  manners  and 
morals,  but  for  the  whole  family  of  the  Sandricourts  ;  for 
though  the  said  sieur  is  now  receiving  the  immortality  we 
bestow  on  him,  and  la  dame,  who  presided  in  that  magnificent 
piece  of  chivalry,  was  infinitely  gratified,  yet  for  ever  after 
was  the  lord  of  Sandricourt  ruined — and  all  for  a  short, 
romantic  three  months  ! 

This  story  of  the  chivalric  period  may  amuse.  A  pas 
d'armes,  though  consisting  of  military  exercises  and  deeds 
of  gallantry,  was  a  sort  of  festival  distinct  from  a  tourna- 
ment. It  signified  a  pas  or  passage  to  be  contested  by  one  or 
more  knights  against  all  comers.  It  was  necessary  that  the 
road  should  be  such  that  it  could  not  be  passed  without  encoun- 
tering some  guardian  knight.  The  chevaliers  who  deputed 
the  pas  hung  their  blazoned  shields  on  trees,  pales,  or  posts 


320     WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF? 


raised  for  this  purpose.  The  aspirants  after  chivalric  honours 
would  strike  with  their  lance  one  of  these  shields,  and  when 
it  rung,  it  instantly  summoned  the  owner  to  the  challenge. 
A  bridge  or  a  road  would  sometimes  serve  for  this  military 
sport,  for  such  it  was  intended  to  be,  whenever  the  heat  of 
the  rivals  proved  not  too  earnest.  The  sieur  of  Sandricourt 
was  a  fine-dreamer  of  feats  of  chivalry,  and  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  his  castle  he  fancied  that  he  saw  a  very  spot 
adapted  for  every  game  ;  there  was  one  admirably  fitted  for 
the  barrier  of  a  tilting-match  ;  another  embellished  by  a  soli- 
tary pine-tree ;  another  which  was  called  the  meadow  of  the 
Thorn  ;  there  was  a  carrefour,  where,  in  four  roads,  four 
knights  might  meet ;  and,  above  all,  there  was  a  forest  called 
devoyable,  having  no  path,  so  favourable  for  errant  knights, 
who  might  there  enter  for  strange  adventures,  and,  as  chance 
directed,  encounter  others  as  bewildered  as  themselves.  Our 
chivalric  Sandricourt  found  nine  young  seigneurs  of  the 
court  of  Charles  the  Eighth  of  France,  who  answered  all  his 
wishes.  To  sanction  this  glorious  feat  it  was  necessary  t 
obtain  leave  from  the  king,  and  a  herald  of  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  to  distribute  the  cartel  or  challenge  all  over  Franc" 
announcing,  that  from  such  a  day,  ten  young  lords  woul 
stand  ready  to  combat,  in  those  different  places,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Sandricourt's  chateau.  The  names  of  this 
flower  of  chivalry  have  been  faithfully  registered,  and  they 
were  such  as  instantly  to  throw  a  spark  into  the  heart  of 
every  lover  of  arms  !  The  world  of  fashion,  that  is,  the 
chivalric  world,  were  set  in  motion.  Four  bodies  of  as- 
sailants soon  collected,  each  consisting  of  ten  combatants. 
The  herald  of  Orleans  having  examined  the  arms  of  these 
gentlemen,  and  satisfied  himself  of  their  ancient  lineage,  and 
their  military  renown,  admitted  their  claims  to  the  proffered 
honour.  Sandricourt  now  saw  with  rapture  the  numerous 
shields  of  the  assailants  placed  on  the  sides  of  his  portals, 
and  corresponding  with  those  of  the  challengers  which  hung 
above  them.    Ancient  lords  were  elected  judges  of  the  feats 


WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF?  321 


of  the  knights,  accompanied  by  the  ladies,  for  whose  honour 
only  the  combatants  declared  they  engaged. 

The  herald  of  Orleans  tells  the  history  in  no  very  intelli- 
gible verse ;  but  the  burden  of  his  stanza  is  still 

"  Dupas  d1  armes  du  chasteau  Sandricourt." 

He  sings,  or  says, 

"  Oncques,  depuis  le  tempts  du  roi  Artus, 
Ne  furent  tant  les  armes  exaulcees — 
Maint  chevaliers  et  preux  entreprenans— 
Princes  plusieurs  ont  terres  d^plac^es 
Pour  y  venir  dormer  coups  et  pouss^es 
Qui  out  £te'  la  tenus  si  de  court 
Que  par  force  n'ont  prises  et  passe*es 
Les  barriers,  entries,  et  passdes 
Du  pas  des  armes  du  chasteau  Sandricourt." 

Doubtless  there  many  a  Roland  met  with  his  Oliver,  and 
could  not  pass  the  barriers.  Cased  as  they  were  in  steel,  de 
pied  en  cap,  we  presume  that  they  could  not  materially  in- 
jure themselves  ;  yet,  when  on  foot,  the  ancient  judges  dis- 
covered such  symptoms  of  peril,  that  on  the  following  day 
they  advised  our  knights  to  satisfy  themselves  by  fighting  on 
horseback.  Against  this  prudential  counsel  for  some  time 
they  protested,  as  an  inferior  sort  of  glory.  However,  on 
the  next  day,  the  horse  combat  was  appointed  in  the  carre- 
four,  by  the  pine-tree.  On  the  following  day  they  tried 
their  lances  in  the  meadow  of  the  Thorn  ;  but,  though  on 
horseback,  the  judges  deemed  their  attacks  were  so  fierce, 
that  this  assault  was  likewise  not  without  peril ;  for  some 
horses  were  killed,  and  some  knights  were  thrown,  and  lay 
bruised  by  their  own  mail ;  but  the  barbed  horses,  wearing 
only  des  chamfreins,  head-pieces  magnificently  caparisoned, 
found  no  protection  in  their  ornaments.  The  last  days  were 
passed  in  combats  of  two  to  two,  or  in  a  single  encounter 
a-foot,  in  the  foret  devoyable.  These  jousts  passed  without 
any  accident,  and  the  prizes  were  awarded  in  a  manner 
equally  gratifying  to  the  claimants.    The  last  day  of  the  fes- 

VOL.  IV.  21 


322      WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF? 


tival  was  concluded  with  a  most  sumptuous  banquet.  Two 
noble  knights  had  undertaken  the  humble  office  of  maitres- 
dholel ;  and  while  the  knights  were  parading  in  the  foret 
devoyable  seeking  adventures,  a  hundred  servants  were  seen 
at  all  points,  carrying  white  and  red  hypocras,  and  juleps, 
and  strop  de  violars,  sweetmeats,  and  other  spiceries,  to  com- 
fort these  wanderers,  who,  on  returning  to  the  chasteau,  found 
a  grand  and  plenteous  banquet.  The  tables  were  crowded 
in  the  court  apartment,  where  some  held  one  hundred  and 
twelve  gentlemen,  not  including  the  dames  and  the  demoi- 
selles. In  the  halls,  and  outside  of  the  chasteau,  were  other 
tables.  At  that  festival  more  than  two  thousand  persons 
were  magnificently  entertained  free  of  every  expense ;  their 
attendants,  their  armourers,  their  plumassiers,  and  others, 
were  also  present.  La  Dame  de  Sandricourt,  "fut  moult 
aise  d'avoir  donne  dans  son  chasteau  si  belle,  si  magnifique, 
et  gorgiasse  fete."  Historians  are  apt  to  describe  their  per- 
sonages as  they  appear,  not  as  they  are  :  if  the  lady  of  the 
Sieur  Sandricourt  really  was  "  moult  aise "  during  these 
gorgeous  days,  one  cannot  but  sympathize  with  the  lady, 
when  her  loyal  knight  and  spouse  confessed  to  her,  after  the 
departure  of  the  mob  of  two  thousand  visitors,  neighbours, 
soldiers,  and  courtiers, — the  knights  challengers,  and  the 
knights  assailants  and  the  fine  scenes  at  the  pine-tree ;  the 
barrier  in  the  meadow  of  the  Thorn ;  and  the  horse-combat 
at  the  carrefour ;  and  the  jousts  in  the  foret  devoyable  ;  the 
carousals  in  the  castle-halls ;  the  jollity  of  the  banquet 
tables  ;  the  morescoes  danced  till  they  were  reminded  "  how 
the  waning  night  grew  old !  " — in  a  word,  when  the  costly 
dream  had  vanished, — that  he  was  a  ruined  man  for  ever,  by 
immortalizing  his  name  in  one  grand  chivalric  festival !  The 
Sieur  de  Sandricourt,  like  a  great  torch,  had  consumed  him- 
self in  his  own  brightness  ;  and  the  very  land  on  which  the 
famous  Pas  de  Sandricourt  was  held — had  passed  away  with 
it !  Thus  one  man  sinks  generations  by  that  wastefulness, 
which  a  political  economist  would  assure  us  was  committing 


WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF?  $23 

no  injury  to  society !  The  moral  evil  goes  for  nothing  in 
financial  statements. 

Similar  instances  of  ruinous  luxury  we  may  find  in  the 
prodigal  costliness  of  dress  through  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth, 
James  the  First,  and  Charles  the  First.  Not  only  in  their 
massy  grandeur  they  outweighed  us,  but  the  accumulation 
and  variety  of  their  wardrobe  displayed  such  a  gaiety  of 
fancy  in  their  colours  and  their  ornaments,  that  the  drawing- 
room  in  those  days  must  have  blazed  at  their  presence,  and 
changed  colours  as  the  crowd  moved.  But  if  we  may  trust 
to  royal  proclamations,  the  ruin  was  general  among  some 
classes.  Elizabeth  issued  more  than  one  proclamation 
against  "  the  excess  of  apparel ! "  and  among  other  evils 
which  the  government  imagined  this  passion  for  dress  occa- 
sioned, it  notices  "  the  wasting  and  undoing  of  a  great  number 
of  young  gentlemen,  otherwise  serviceable  ;  and  that  others, 
seeking  by  show  of  apparel  to  be  esteemed  as  gentlemen, 
and  allured  by  the  vain  show  of  these  things,  not  only  con- 
sume their  goods  and  lands,  but  also  run  into  such  debts  and 
shifts,  as  they  cannot  live  out  of  danger  of  laws  without 
attempting  of  unlawful  acts."  The  queen  bids  her  own 
household  "  to  look  unto  it  for  good  example  to  the  realm ; 
and  all  noblemen,  archbishops,  and  bishops,  all  mayors,  jus- 
tices of  peace,  &c.  should  see  them  executed  in  their  private 
households."  The  greatest  difficulty  which  occurred  to  reg- 
ulate the  wear  of  apparel  was  ascertaining  the  incomes  of 
persons,  or  in  the  words  of  the  proclamation,  "  finding  that  it 
is  very  hard  for  any  man's  state  of  living  and  value  to  be 
truly  understood  by  other  persons."  They  were  to  be  regu- 
lated, as  they  appear  "  sessed  in  the  subsidy  books."  But  if 
persons  chose  to  be  more  magnificent  in  their  dress,  they 
were  allowed  to  justify  their  means  :  in  that  case,  if  allowed, 
her  majesty  would  not  be  the  loser ;  for  they  were  to  be 
rated  in  the  subsidy  books  according  to  such  values  as  they 
themselves  offered  as  a  qualification  for  the  splendour  of 
their  dress ! 


324     WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF? 


In  my  researches  among  manuscript  letters  of  the  times,  I 
have  had  frequent  occasion  to  discover  how  persons  of  con- 
siderable rank  appear  to  have  carried  their  acres  on  their 
backs,  and  with  their  ruinous  and  fantastical  luxuries  sadly 
pinched  their  hospitality.  It  was  this  which  so  frequently 
cast  them  into  the  nets  of  the  "  goldsmiths,"  and  other  trad- 
ing usurers.  At  the  coronation  of  James  the  First,  I  find 
a  simple  knight  whose  cloak  cost  him  five  hundred  pounds  ; 
but  this  was  not  uncommon.  At  the  marriage  of  Elizabeth, 
the  daughter  of  James  the  First,  "  Lady  Wotton  had  a 
gown  of  which  the  embroidery  cost  fifty  pounds  a  yard. 
The  Lady  Arabella  made  four  gowns,  one  of  which  cost 
£1500.  The  Lord  Montacute  (Montague)  bestowed  £1500 
in  apparel  for  his  two  daughters.  One  lady,  under  the  rank 
of  baroness,  was  furnished  with  jewels  exceeding  one  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  ;  "  and  the  Lady  Arabella  goes  beyond 
her,"  says  the  letter-writer.  "  All  this  extreme  costs  and 
riches  makes  us  all  poor,"  as  he  imagined  !  I  have  been 
amused  in  observing  grave  writers  of  state  dispatches  jocular 
on  any  mischance  or  mortification  to  which  persons  are  liable, 
whose  happiness  entirely  depends  on  their  dress.  Sir  Dud- 
ley Carleton,  our  minister  at  Venice,  communicates,  as  an 
article  worth  transmitting,  the  great  disappointment  incurred 
by  Sir  Thomas  Glover,  "  who  was  just  come  hither,  and 
had  appeared  one  day  like  a  comet,  all  in  crimson  velvet  and 
beaten  gold,  but  had  all  his  expectations  marred  on  a  sudden 
by  the  news  of  Prince  Henry's  death."  A  similar  mischance, 
from  a  different  cause,  was  the  lot  of  Lord  Hay,  who  made 
great  preparations  for  his  embassy  to  France,  which,  how- 
ever, were  chiefly  confined  to  his  dress.  He  was  to  remain 
there  twenty  days ;  and  the  letter-writer  maliciously  ob- 
serves, that  "  He  goes  with  twenty  special  suits  of  apparel 
for  so  many  days'  abode,  besides  his  travelling  robes  ;  but 
news  is  very  lately  come  that  the  French  have  lately  altered 
their  fashion,  whereby  he  must  needs  be  out  of  countenance, 
if  he  be  not  set  out  after  the  last  edition !  "    To  find  himself 


WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF?  325 

out  of  fashion,  with  twenty  suits  for  twenty  days,  was  a  mis- 
chance his  lordship  had  no  right  to  count  on  ! 

"  The  glass  of  fashion "  was  unquestionably  held  up  by 
two  very  eminent  characters,  Rawleigh  and  Buckingham  ; 
and  the  authentic  facts  recorded  of  their  dress  will  suffi- 
ciently account  for  the  frequent  "  Proclamations  "  to  control 
that  servile  herd  of  imitators — the  smaller  gentry  ! 

There  is  a  remarkable  picture  of  Sir  Walter,  which  will 
at  least  serve  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  gaiety  and  splendour 
of  his  dress.  It  is  a  white  satin  pinked  vest,  close  sleeved 
to  the  wrist ;  over  the  body  a  brown  doublet,  finely  flowered 
and  embroidered  with  pearl.  In  the  feather  of  his  hat  a  large 
ruby  and  pearl  drop  at  the  bottom  of  the  sprig,  in  place  of  a 
button  ;  his  trunk  or  breeches,  with  his  stockings  and  riband 
garters,  fringed  at  the  end,  all  white,  and  buff  shoes  with 
white  riband.  Oldys,  who  saw  this  picture,  has  thus  de- 
scribed the  dress  of  Rawleigh.  But  I  have  some  important 
additions ;  for  I  find  that  Rawleigh's  shoes  on  great  court 
days  were  so  gorgeously  covered  with  precious  stones,  as  to 
have  exceeded  the  value  of  six  thousand  six  hundred  pounds  : 
and  that  he  had  a  suit  of  armour  of  solid  silver,  with  sword 
and  belt  blazing  with  diamonds,  rubies  and  pearls,  whose 
value  was  not  so  easily  calculated.  Rawleigh  had  no  patri- 
monial inheritance  ;  at  this  moment  he  had  on  his  back  a 
good  portion  of  a  Spanish  galleon,  and  the  profits  of  a  mo- 
nopoly of  trade  he  was  carrying  on  with  the  newly  discov- 
ered Virginia.  Probably  he  placed  all  his  hopes  in  his 
dress  !  The  virgin  queen,  when  she  issued  proclamations 
against  "  the  excess  of  apparel,"  pardoned,  by  her  looks,  that 
promise  of  a  mine  which  blazed  in  Rawleigh's  ;  and,  parsi- 
monious as  she  was,  forgot  the  three  thousand  changes  of 
dresses  which  she  herself  left  in  the  royal  wardrobe. 

Buckingham  could  afford  to  have  his  diamonds  tacked  so 
loosely  on,  that  when  he  chose  to  shake  a  few  off  on  the 
ground,  he  obtained  all  the  fame  he  desired  from  the  pickers- 
ap,  who  were  generally  les  dames  3e  la  cour  ;  for  our  duke 


326      WHETHER  ALLOWABLE  TO  RUIN  ONE'S  SELF? 


never  condescended  to  accept  what  he  himself  had  dropped. 
His  rloaks  were  trimmed  with  great  diamond  button-,  and 
diamond  hat-bands,  cockades  and  ear-rings  yoked  with  great 
ropes  and  knots  of  pearls.  This  was  however  but  for  ordi- 
nary dances.  "  He  had  twenty-seven  suits  of  clothes  made 
the  richest  that  embroidery,  lace,  silk,  velvet,  silver,  gold, 
and  gems,  could  contribute  ;  one  of  which  was  a  white  uncut 
velvet,  set  all  over,  both  suit  and  cloak,  with  diamonds  valued 
at  fourscore  thousand  pounds,  besides  a  great  feather  stuck 
all  over  with  diamonds,  as  were  also  his  sword,  girdle,  hat, 
and  spurs."  *  In  the  masques  and  banquets  with  which 
Buckingham  entertained  the  court,  he  usually  expended,  for 
the  evening,  from  one  to  five  thousand  pounds.  To  others  I 
leave  to  calculate  the  value  of  money  ;  the  sums  of  this  gor- 
geous wastefulness,  it  must  be  recollected,  occurred  before 
this  million  age  of  ours. 

If,  to  provide  the  means  for  such  enormous  expenditure, 
Buckingham  multiplied  the  grievances  of  monopolies;  if  he 
pillaged  the  treasury  for  his  eighty  thousand  pounds'  coat ;  if 
Rawleigh  was  at  length  driven  to  his  last  desperate  enter- 
prise, to  relieve  himself  of  his  creditors  for  a  pair  of  six 
thousand  pounds'  shoes — in  both  these  cases,  as  in  that  of  the 
chivalric  Sandricourt,  the  political  economist  may  perhaps 
acknowledge  that  there  is  a  sort  of  luxury  highly  criminal. 
All  the  arguments  he  may  urge,  all  the  statistical  accounts 
he  may  calculate,  and  the  healthful  state  of  his  circulating 
medium  among  "  the  merchants,  embroiderers,  silk-men,  and 
jewellers  " — will  not  alter  such  a  moral  evil,  which  leaves  an 
eternal  taint  on  "  the  wealth  of  nations  ! "  It  is  the  prin- 
ciple that  "  private  vices  are  public  benefits,"  and  that  men 
may  be  allowed  to  ruin  their  generations  without  committing 
any  injury  to  society. 

*  The  Jesuit  Drexelius,  in  one  of  his  religious  dialogues,  notices  the 
fact;  hut  I  am  referring  to  an  Harleian  manuscript,  which  confirms  the 
information  of  the  Jesuit. 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN. 


327 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN. 

TnosE  who  are  unaccustomed  to  the  labours  of  the  closet 
are  unacquainted  with  the  secret  and  silent  triumphs  obtained 
in  the,  pursuits  of  studious  men.  That  aptitude,  which  in 
poetry  is  sometimes  called  inspiration,  in  knowledge  we  may 
call  sagacity  ;  and  it  is  probable,  that  the  vehemence  of  the 
one  does  not  excite  more  pleasure  than  the  still  tranquillity 
of  the  other:  they  are  both,  according  to  the  strict  significa- 
tion of  the  Latin  term  from  whence  we  have  borrowed  ours 
of  invention,  a  finding  out,  the  result  of  a  combination  which 
no  other  has  formed  but  ourselves. 

I  will  produce  several  remarkable  instances  of  the  felicity 
of  this  aptitude  of  the  learned  in  making  discoveries  which 
could  only  have  been  effectuated  by  an  uninterrupted  inter- 
course with  the  objects  of  their  studies,  making  things  remote 
and  dispersed,  familiar  and  present. 

One  of  ancient  date  is  better  known  to  the  reader  than 
those  I  am  preparing  for  him.  When  the  magistrates  of 
Syracuse  were  showing  to  Cicero  the  curiosities  of  the  place, 
he  desired  to  visit  the  tomb  of  Archimedes ;  but,  to  his  sur- 
prise, they  acknowledged  that  they  knew  nothing  of  any  such 
tomb,  and  denied  that  it  ever  existed.  The  learned  Cicero, 
convinced  by  the  authorities  of  ancient  writers,  by  the  verses 
of  the  inscription  which  he  remembered,  and  the  circum- 
stance of  a  sphere  with  a  cylinder  being  engraven  on  it,  re- 
quested them  to  assist  him  in  the  search.  They  conducted 
the  illustrious  but  obstinate  stranger  to  their  most  ancient 
burying-ground  :  amidst  the  number  of  sepulchres,  they  ob- 
served a  small  column  overhung  with  brambles — Cicero, 
looking  on  while  they  were  clearing  away  the  rubbish,  sud- 
denly exclaimed,  "  Here  is  the  thing  we  are  looking  for !  " 
His  eye  had  caught  the  geometrical  figures  on  the  tomb,  and 
the  inscription  soon  confirmed  his  conjecture.  Cicero  long 
after  exulted  in  the  triumph  of  this  discovery.    "  Thus !  "  he 


328 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN. 


says,  "one  of  the  noblest  cities  of  Greece,  and  once  the 
most  learned,  had  known  nothing  of  the  monument  of  its 
most  deserving  and  ingenious  citizen,  had  it  not  been  discov- 
ered to  them  by  a  native  of  Arpinum!" 

The  great  French  antiquary,  Peiresc,  exhibited  a  singular 
combination  of  learning,  patient  thought,  and  luminous  sagac- 
ity, which  could  restore  an  "  airy  nothing  "  to  "  a  local  habi- 
tation and  a  name."  There  was  found  on  an  amethyst,  and 
the  same  afterwards  occurred  on  the  front  of  an  ancient 
temple,  a  number  of  marks,  or  indents,  which  had  long  per- 
plexed inquirers,  more  particularly  as  similar  marks  or  in- 
dents were  frequently  observed  in  ancient  monuments.  It 
was  agreed  on,  as  no  one  could  understand  them,  and  all 
would  be  satisfied,  that  they  were  secret  hieroglyphics.  It 
occurred  to  Peiresc,  that  these  marks  were  nothing  more 
than  holes  for  small  nails,  which  had  formerly  fastened  little 
lamina,  which  represented  so  many  Greek  letters.  This 
hint  of  his  own  suggested  to  him  to  draw  lines  from  one  hole 
to  another ;  and  he  beheld  the  amethyst  reveal  the  name  of 
the  sculptor,  and  the  frieze  of  the  temple  the  name  of  the 
god !  This  curious  discovery  has  been  since  frequently  ap- 
plied ;  but  it  appears  to  have  originated  with  this  great  anti- 
quary, who  by  his  learning  and  sagacity  explained  a  supposed 
hieroglyphic,  which  had  been  locked  up  in  the  silence  of 
seventeen  centuries.* 

Learned  men,  confined  to  their  study,  have  often  rectified 
the  errors  of  travellers  ;  they  have  done  more,  they  have 
found  out  paths  for  them  to  explore,  or  opened  seas  for 
them  to  navigate.  The  situation  of  the  vale  of  Tempe 
had  been  mistaken  by  modern  travellers ;  and  it  is  sin- 
gular, observes  the  Quarterly  Reviewer,  yet  not  so  singu- 

*  The  curious  reader  may  view  the  marks,  and  the  manner  in  -which 
the  Greek  characters  were  made  out,  in  the  preface  to  Hearne's  "  Curious 
Discourses."  The  amethyst  proved  more  difficult  than  the  frieze,  from 
the  circumstance,  that  in  engraving  on  the  stone  the  letters  must  be  re- 
versed. 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN.  329 


lar  as  it  appears  to  that  elegant  critic,  that  the  only  good 
directions  for  finding  it  had  been  given  by  a  person  who  was 
never  in  Greece.  Arthur  Browne,  a  man  of  letters  of  Trin- 
ity College,  Dublin — it  is  gratifying  to  quote  an  Irish  phi- 
losopher and  man  of  letters,  from  the  extreme  rarity  of  the 
character — was  the  first  to  detect  the  inconsistencies  of 
Pococke  and  Busching,  and  to  send  future  travellers  to  look 
for  Tempe  in  its  real  situation,  the  defiles  between  Ossa  and 
Olympus  ;  a  discovery  subsequently  realized.  When  Dr. 
Clarke  discovered  an  inscription  purporting  that  the  pass 
of  Tempe  had  been  fortified  by  Cassius  Longinus,  Mr.  "\Yal- 
pole,  with  equal  felicity,  detected,  in  Caesar's  History  of  the 
Civil  War,  the  name  and  the  mission  of  this  very  person. 

A  living  geographer,  to  whom  the  world  stands  deeply  in- 
debted, does  not  read  Herodotus  in  the  original ;  yet,  by  the 
exercise  of  his  extraordinary  aptitude,  it  is  well  known  that 
he  has  often  corrected  the  Greek  historian,  explained  ob- 
scurities in  a  text  which  he  never  read,  by  his  own  happy 
conjectures,  and  confirmed  his  own  discoveries  by  the  sub- 
sequent knowledge  which  modern  travellers  have  afforded. 

Gray's  perseverance  in  studying  the  geography  of  India 
and  of  Persia,  at  a  time  when  our  country  had  no  immediate 
interests  with  those  ancient  empires,  would  have  been  placed 
by  a  cynical  observer  among  the  curious  idleness  of  a  mere 
man  of  letters.  These  studies  were  indeed  prosecuted,  as 
Mr.  Mathias  observes,  "  on  the  disinterested  principles  of 
liberal  investigation,  not  on  those  of  policy,  nor  of  the  regu- 
lation of  trade,  nor  of  the  extension  of  empire,  nor  of  per- 
manent establishments,  but  simply  and  solely  on  the  grand 
view  of  what  is,  and  of  what  is  past.  They  were  the  re- 
searches of  a  solitary  scholar  in  academical  retirement." 
Since  the  time  of  Gray,  these  very  pursuits  have  been 
carried  on  by  two  consummate  geographers,  Major  Rennel 
and  Dr.  Vincent,  who  have  opened  to  the  classical  and  the 
political  reader  all  he  wished  to  learn,  at  a  time  when  India 
and  Persia  had  become  objects  interesting  and  important  to 


330 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN. 


us.  The  fruits  of  Gray's  learning,  long  after  their  author 
was  no  more,  became  valuable  ! 

The  studies  of  the  "solitary  scholar"  are  always  useful  to 
the  world,  although  they  may  not  always  be  timed  to  its 
present  wants  ;  with  him,  indeed,  they  are  not  merely  de- 
signed for  this  purpose.  Gray  discovered  India  for  himself; 
but  the  solitary  pursuits  of  a  great  student,  shaped  to  a  par- 
ticular end,  will  never  fail  being  useful  to  the  world ;  though 
it  may  happen,  that  a  century  may  elapse  between  the  pe- 
riods of  the  discovery  and  its  practical  utility. 

Halley's  version  of  an  Arabic  MS.  on  a  mathematical  sub- 
ject, offers  an  instance  of  the  extraordinary  sagacity  I  am 
alluding  to ;  it  may  also  serve  as  a  demonstration  of  the 
peculiar  and  supereminent  advantages  possessed  by  mathe- 
maticians, observes  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart,  in  their  fixed  rela- 
tions, which  form  the  objects  of  their  science,  and  the  corre- 
spondent precision  in  their  language  and  reasonings: — as 
matter  of  literary  history,  it  is  highly  curious.  Dr.  Bernard 
accidentally  discovered  in  the  Bodleian  library  an  Arabic 
version  of  Apollonius  de  Sectione  Rationis,  which  he  deter- 
mined to  translate  in  Latin,  but  only  finished  about  a  tenth 
part.  Halley,  extremely  interested  by  the  subject,  but  with 
an  entire  ignorance  of  the  Arabic  language,  resolved  to  com- 
plete the  imperfect  version  !  Assisted  only  by  the  manuscript 
which  Bernard  had  left,  it  served  him  as  a  key  for  investi- 
gating the  sense  of  the  original ;  he  first  made  a  list  of  those 
words  wherever  they  occurred,  with  the  train  of  reasoning  in 
which  they  were  involved,  to  decipher,  by  these  very  slow 
degrees,  the  import  of  the  context ;  till  at  last  Halley  suc- 
ceeded in  mastering  the  whole  work,  and  in  bringing  the 
translation,  without  the  aid  of  any  one,  to  the  form  in  which 
he  gave  it  to  the  public ;  so  that  we  have  here  a  difficult 
work  translated  from  the  Arabic,  by  one  who  was  in  no  man- 
ner conversant  with  the  language,  merely  by  the  exertion  of 
his  sagacity ! 

I  give  the  memorable  account,  as  Boyle  has  delivered  it, 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN. 


331 


of  the  circumstances  which  led  Harvey  to  the  discovery  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood. 

"  I  remember  that  when  I  asked  our  famous  Harvey,  in 
the  only  discourse  I  had  with  him,  which  was  but  a  little 
while  before  he  died,  what  were  the  things  which  induced 
him  to  think  of  a  circulation  of  the  blood,  he  answered  me, 
that  when  he  took  notice  that  the  valves  in  the  veins  of  so 
many  parts  of  the  body  were  so  placed  that  they  gave  free 
passage  to  the  blood  towards  the  heart,  but  opposed  the  pas- 
sage of  the  venal  blood  the  contrary  way,  he  was  invited  to 
think  that  so  provident  a  cause  as  nature  had  not  placed  so 
many  valves  without  design ;  and  no  design  seemed  more 
probable  than  that,  since  the  blood  could  not  well,  because  of 
the  interposing  valves,  be  sent  by  the  veins  to  the  limbs,  it 
should  be  sent  through  the  arteries  and  return  through  the 
veins,  whose  valves  did  not  oppose  its  course  that  way." 

The  reason  here  ascribed  to  Harvey  seems  now  so  very 
natural  and  obvious,  that  some  have  been  disposed  to  ques- 
tion his  claim  to  the  high  rank  commonlv  assigned  to  him 
among  the  improvers  of  science !  Dr.  William  Hunter  has 
said,  that  after  the  discovery  of  the  valves  in  the  veins,  which 
Harvey  learned  while  in  Italy  from  his  master,  Fabricius  ab 
Aquapendente,  the  remaining  step  might  easily  have  been 
made  by  any  person  of  common  abilities.  "  This  discovery," 
he  observes,  "  set  Harvey  to  work  upon  the  use  of  the  heart 
and  vascular  system  in  animals ;  and  in  the  course  of  some 
years,  he  was  so  happy  as  to  discover,  and  to  prove  beyond 
all  possibility  of  doubt,  the  circulation  of  the  blood."  He 
afterwards  expresses  his  astonishment  that  this  discovery 
should  have  been  left  for  Harvey,  though  he  acknowledges 
it  occupied  "a  course  of  years;"  adding  that  "  Providence 
meant  to  reserve  it  for  him,  and  would  not  let  men  see  what 
was  before  them,  nor  understand  what  they  read.'1  It  is  re- 
markable that  when  great  discoveries  are  effected,  their  sim- 
plicity always  seems  to  detract  from  their  originality ;  on 
these  occasions  we  are  reminded  of  the  egg  of  Columbus  ! 


332 


DISCOVERIES  OF  SECLUDED  MEN. 


It  is  said  that  a  recent  discovery,  which  ascertains  that  the 
Niger  empties  itself  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  was  really  an- 
ticipated by  the  geographical  acumen  of  a  student  at  Glasgow, 
who  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion  by  a  most  persevering 
investigation  of  the  works  of  travellers  and  geographers,  an- 
cient and  modern,  and  by  an  examination  of  African  cap- 
tives ;  and  had  actually  constructed,  for  the  inspection  of 
government,  a  map  of  Africa,  on  which  he  had  traced  the 
entire  course  of  the  Niger  from  the  interior. 

Franklin  conjectured  the  identity  of  lightning  and  of  elec- 
tricity, before  he  had  realized  it  by  decisive  experiment. 
The  kite  being  raised,  a  considerable  time  elapsed  before 
there  was  any  appearance  of  its  being  electrified.  One  very 
promising  cloud  had  passed  over  it  without  any  effect.  Just 
as  he  was  beginning  to  despair  of  his  contrivance  he  observed 
some  loose  threads  of  the  hempen  string  to  stand  erect,  and 
to  avoid  one  another,  just  as  if  they  had  been  suspended  on 
a  common  conductor.  Struck  with  this  promising  appearance, 
he  immediately  presented  his  knuckle  to  the  key!  And  let 
the  reader  judge  of  the  exquisite  pleasure  he  must  have  felt 
at  that  moment  when  the  discovery  was  complete  !  We  owe 
to  Priestley  this  admirable  narrative — the  strong  sensation 
of  delight  which  Franklin  experienced  as  his  knuckle  touched 
the  key,  and  at  the  moment  when  he  felt  that  a  new  world 
was  opening,  might  have  been  equalled,  but  it  was  probably 
not  surpassed,  when  the  same  hand  signed  the  long-disputed 
independence  of  his  country  ! 

When  Leibnitz  was  occupied  in  his  philosophical  reason- 
ings on  his  Law  of  Continuity,  his  singular  sagacity  enabled 
him  to  predict  a  discovery  which  afterwards  was  realized — 
he  imagined  the  necessary  existence  of  the  polypus ! 

It  has  been  remarked  of  Newton,  that  several  of  his  slight 
hints,  some  in  the  modest  form  of  queries,  have  been  ascer- 
tained to  be  predictions,  and  among  others  that  of  the  inflam- 
mability of  the  diamond ;  and  many  have  been  eagerly  seized 
jpon  as  indisputable  axioms.    A  hint  at  the  close  of  his  Op- 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


333 


tics,  that  "  If  natural  philosophy  should  be  continued  to  be 
improved  in  its  various  branches,  the  bounds  of  moral  philos- 
ophy would  be  enlarged  also,"  is  perhaps  among  the  most 
important  of  human  discoveries — it  gave  rise  to  Hartley's 
Physiological  Theory  of  the  Mind.  The  queries,  the  hints, 
the  conjectures  of  Newton,  display  the  most  creative  sagac- 
ity ;  and  demonstrate  in  what  manner  the  discoveries  of  re- 
tired men,  while  they  bequeathe  their  legacies  to  the  world, 
afford  to  themselves  a  frequent  source  of  secret  and  silent 
triumphs. 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 

A  periodical  critic,  probably  one  of  the  juniors,  has 
thrown  out  a  startling  observation.  "  There  is,"  says  this 
literary  senator,  "  something  melancholy  in  the  study  of  bio- 
graphy, because  it  is — a  history  of  the  dead ! "  A  truism  and 
a  falsity  mixed  up  together  is  the  temptation  with  some  mod- 
ern critics  to  commit  that  darling  sin  of  theirs — novelty  and 
originality !  But  we  really  cannot  condole  with  the  read- 
ers of  Plutarch  for  their  deep  melancholy ;  we  who  feel  our 
spirits  refreshed,  amidst  the  mediocrity  of  society,  when  we 
are  recalled  back  to  the  men  and  the  women  who  were  !  illus- 
trious in  every  glory  !  Biography  with  us  is  a  reunion  with 
human  existence  in  its  most  excellent  state !  and  we  find 
notlring  dead  in  the  past,  while  we  retain  the  sympathies 
which  only  require  to  be  awakened. 

It  would  have  been  more  reasonable  had  the  critic  discov- 
ered that  our  country  has  not  yet  had  her  Plutarch,  and  that 
our  biography  remains  still  little  more  than  a  mass  of  compi- 
lation. 

In  this  study  of  biography  there  is  a  species  which  has  not 
yet  been  distinguished — biographies  composed  by  some  do- 
mestic friend,  or  1>y  some  enthusiast  who  works  with  love. 
A  term  is  unquestionably  wanted  for  this  distinct  class.  The 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


Germans  seem  to  have  invented  a  platonic  one,  drawn  from 
the  Greek  psyche,  or  the  soul ;  for  they  call  this  the  psycho- 
logical life.  Another  attempt  has  been  made,  by  giving  it 
the  scientific  term  of  idiosyncrasy,  to  denote  a  peculiarity  of 
disposition.    I  would  call  it  sentimental  biography  ! 

It  is  distinct  from  a  chronological  biography,  for  it  searches 
for  the  individual's  feelings  amidst  the  ascertained  facts  of  his 
life  ;  so  that  facts,  which  occurred  remotely  from  each  other, 
are  here  brought  at  once  together.  The  detail  of  events 
which  completes  the  chronological  biography,  contains  many 
which  are  not  connected  with  the  peculiarity  of  the  character 
itself.  The  sentimental  is  also  distinct  from  the  auto-biogra- 
phy, however  it  may  seem  a  part  of  it.  Whether  a  man  be 
entitled  to  lavish  his  panegyric  on  himself,  I  will  not  decide  ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  he  risks  every  thing  by  appealing  to  a 
solitary  and  suspected  witness. 

We  have  two  lives  of  Dante,  one  by  Boccaccio  and  the 
other  by  Leonardo  Aretino,  both  interesting :  but  Boccaccio's 
is  the  sentimental  life  ! 

Aretino,  indeed,  finds  fault,  but  with  all  the  tenderness 
possible,  with  Boccaccio's  affectionate  sketch,  Origine,  Vita, 
Studi  e  Costumi  del  clarissimo  Dante,  &c.  "  Origin,  Life, 
Studies  and  Manners,  of  the  illustrious  Dante,"  &c.  "  It 
seems  to  me,"  he  says,  "  that  our  Boccaccio,  dolcissimo  e 
suavissimo  uomo,  sweet  and  delightful  man  !  has  written  the 
life  and  manners  of  this  sublime  poet,  as  if  he  had  been  com- 
posing the  Filocolo,  the  Filostrato,  or  the  Fiametta,"  the 
romances  of  Boccaccio — "for  all  breathes  of  love  and  sighs, 
and  is  covered  with  warm  tears,  as  if  a  man  were  born  in 
this  world  only  to  live  among  the  enamoured  ladies  and  the 
gallant  youths  of  the  ten  amorous  days  of  his  hundred 
novels." 

Aretino,  who  wanted  not  all  the  feeling  requisite  for  the 
delightful  "  costumi  e  studi  "  of  Boccaccio's  Dante,  modestly 
requires  that  his  own  life  of  Dante  should  be  considered  as  a 
supplement  to,  not  as  a  substitute  for,  Boccaccio's.  Pathetic 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


335 


with  all  the  sorrows,  and  eloquent  with  all  the  remonstrances 
of  a  fellow-citizen,  Boccaccio  while  he  wept,  hung  with  anger 
over  his  country's  shame  in  its  apathy  for  the  honour  of  its 
long-injured  exile.  Catching  inspiration  from  the  breathing 
pages  of  Boccaccio,  it  inclines  one  to  wish  that  we  possessed 
two  biographies  of  an  illustrious  favourite  character ;  the  one 
strictly  and  fully  historical,  the  other  fraught  with  those  very 
feelings  of  the  departed,  which  we  may  have  to  seek  in  vain 
for,  in  the  circumstantial  and  chronological  biographer,.  Boc- 
caccio, indeed,  was  overcome  by  his  feelings.  He  either 
knew  not,  or  he  omits  the  substantial  incidents  of  Dante's 
life ;  while  his  imagination  throws  a  romantic  tinge  on  occur- 
rences raised  on  slight,  perhaps  on  no  foundation.  Boccaccio 
narrates  a  dream  of  the  mother  of  Dante  so  fancifully  poeti- 
cal, that  probably  Boccaccio  forgot  that  none  but  a  dreamer 
could  have  told  it.  Seated  under  a  high  laurel-tree,  by  the 
side  of  a  vast  fountain,  the  mother  dreamt  that  she  gave  birth 
to  her  son  ;  she  saw  him  nourished  by  its  fruit,  and  refreshed 
by  the  clear  waters;  she  soon  beheld  him  a  shepherd; 
approaching  to  pluck  the  boughs,  she  saw  him  fall !  When 
he  rose  he  had  ceased  to  be  a  man,  and  was  transformed  into 
a  peacock  !  Disturbed  by  her  admiration,  she  suddenly 
awoke  ;  but  when  the  father  found  that  he  really  had  a  son, 
in  allusion  to  the  dream  he  called  him  Dante — or  given  I  e 
meritamente  ;  peroccke  ottimamente,  siccome  si  vedra  proce- 
dendo, segui  al  nome  V  effetto :  "  and  deservedly  !  for  greatly, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  effect  followed  the  name ! "  At  nine 
years  of  age,  on  a  May-day,  whose  joyous  festival  Boccaccio 
beautifully  describes,  when  the  softness  of  the  heavens  re- 
adorning  the  earth  with  its  mingled  flowers,  waved  the  green 
boughs,  and  made  all  things  smile,  Dante  mixed  with  the 
boys  and  girls  in  the  house  of  the  good  citizen  who  on  that 
day  gave  the  feast,  beheld  little  Brice,  as  she  was  familiarly 
called,  but  named  Beatrice.  The  little  Dante  might  have 
seen  her  before,  but  he  loved  her  then,  and  from  that  day 
never  ceased  to  love  ;  and  thus  Dante  nella  pargoletta  eta 


336 


SENTIMENTAL  BIO  GRAF  IT  Y. 


fatto  oV  amove  ferventissimo  servidore  ;  so  fervent  a  servant 
to  Love  in  an  age  of  childhood  !  Boccaccio  appeals  to  Dante's 
own  account  of  his  long  passion,  and  his  constant  sighs,  in 
the  Vita  Nuova.  No  look,  no  word,  no  sign,  sullied  the 
purity  of  his  passion  ;  but  in  her  twenty-fourth  year  died  "  la 
bellissima  Beatrice."  Dante  is  then  described  as  more  than 
inconsolable  ;  his  eyes  were  long  two  abundant  fountains  of 
tears  ;  careless  of  life,  he  let  his  beard  grow  wildly,  and  to 
others  appeared  a  savage  meagre  man,  whose  aspect  was  so 
changed,  that  while  this  weeping  life  lasted,  he  was  hardly 
recognized  by  his  friends  ;  all  looked  on  a  man  so  entirely 
transformed,  with  deep  compassion.  Dante,  won  over  by 
those  who  could  console  the  inconsolable,  was  at  length 
solicited  by  his  relations  to  marry  a  lady  of  his  own  condition 
in  life  ;  and  it  was  suggested  that  as  the  departed  lady  had 
occasioned  him  such  heavy  griefs,  the  new  one  might  open  a 
source  of  delight.  The  relations  and  friends  of  Dante  gave 
him  a  wife  that  his  tears  for  Beatrice  might  cease. 

It  is  supposed  that  this  marriage  proved  unhappy.  Boc- 
caccio, like  a  pathetic  lover  rather  than  biographer,  exclaims, 
Oh  menti  cieche  !  Oh  tenebrosi  intelletti  I  Oh  argomenti  vani 
di  mold  mortali,  quante  sono  le  ruiscite  in  assai  cose  contra- 
rie  a'  nostri  avvisi !  &c.  "  Oh  blind  men !  Oh  dark  minds  ! 
Oh  vain  arguments  of  most  mortals,  how  often  are  the  results 
contrary  to  our  advice !  Frequently  it  is  like  leading  one 
who  breathes  the  soft  air  of  Italy  to  refresh  himself  in  the 
eternal  shades  of  the  Rhodopean  mountains.  What  physician 
would  expel  a  burning  fever  with  fire,  or  put  in  the  shivering 
marrow  of  the  bones  snow  and  ice  ?  So  certainly  shall  it 
fare  with  him,  who  with  a  new  love,  thinks  to  mitigate  the 
old.  Those  who  believe  this  know  not  the  nature  of  love,  nor 
how  much  a  second  passion  adds  to  the  first.  In  vain  would 
we  assist  or  advise  this  forceful  passion,  if  it  has  struck  its 
root  near  the  heart  of  him  who  long  has  loved." 

Boccaccio  has  beguiled  my  pen  for  half-an-hour  with  all 
the  loves  and  fancies  which  sprung  out  of  his  own  affectionate 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


and  romantic  heart.  What  airy  stuff  has  he  woven  into  the 
"Vita"  of  Dante!  this  sentimental  biography!  Whether 
he  knew  but  little  of  the  personal  history  of  the  great  man 
whom  he  idolized,  or  whether  the  dream  of  the  mother — the 
May-day  interview  with  the  little  Brice,  and  the  rest  of 
the  children — and  the  effusions  on  Dante's  marriage,  were 
grounded  on  tradition,  one  would  not  harshly  reject  such 
tender  incidents.*  But  let  it  not  be  imagined  that  the  heart 
of  Boccaccio  was  only  susceptible  to  amorous  impressions — 
bursts  of  enthusiasm  and  eloquence,  which  only  a  man  of 
genius  is  worthy  of  receiving,  and  only  a  man  of  genius  is 
capable  of  bestowing — kindle  the  masculine  patriotism  of  his 
bold,  indignant  spirit ! 

Half  a  century  had  elapsed  since  the  death  of  Dante,  and 
still  the  Florentines  showed  no  sign  of  repentance  for  their 
ancient  hatred  of  their  persecuted  patriot,  nor  any  sense  of 
the  memory  of  the  creator  of  their  language,  whose  immor- 
tality had  become  a  portion  of  their  own  glory.  Boccaccio, 
impassioned  by  all  his  generous  nature,  though  he  regrets  he 
could  not  raise  a  statue  to  Dante,  has  sent  down  to  posterity 
more  than  marble,  in  the  "  life."  I  venture  to  give  the  lofty 
and  bold  apostrophe  to  his  fellow-citizens;  but  I  feel  that 
even  the  genius  of  our  language  is  tame  by  the  side  of  the 
harmonized  eloquence  of  the  great  votary  of  Dante  ! 

"  Ungrateful  country !  what  madness  urged  thee,  when  thy 
dearest  citizen,  thy  chief  benefactor,  thy  only  poet,  with  un- 
accustomed cruelty  was  driven  to  flight !  If  this  had  hap- 
pened in  the  general  terror  of  that  time,  coming  from  evil 
counsels,  thou  mightest  stand  excused ;  but  when  the  passion 

*  "A  Comment  on  the  Divine  Comedy  of  Dante,"  in  English,  printed 
in  Italy,  has  just  reached  me.  I  am  delighted  to  find  that  this  biography 
of  Love,  however  romantic,  is  true !  In  his  ninth  year,  Dante  was  a  lover 
and  a  poet !  The  tender  sonnet,  free  from  all  obscurity,  which  he  com- 
posed on  Beatrice,  is  preserved  in  the  above  singular  volume.  There  can 
be  no  longer  any  doubt  of  the  story  of  Beatrice;  but  the  sonnet  and  the 
passion  must  be  "  classed  among  curious  natural  phenomena,"  or  how  far 
apocryphal,  remains  for  future  inquiry. 

VOL.  iv.  22 


338 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


ceased,  didst  thou  repent  ?  didst  thou  recall  him  ?  Bear  with 
me,  nor  deem  it  irksome  from  me,  who  am  thy  son,  that  thus 
I  collect  what  just  indignation  prompts  me  to  speak,  as  a 
man  more  desirous  of  witnessing  your  amendment,  than  of 
beholding  you  punished !  Seems  it  to  you  glorious,  proud  of 
so  many  titles  and  of  such  men,  that  the  one  whose  like  no 
neighbouring  city  can  show,  you  have  chosen  to  chase  from 
among  you  ?  With  what  triumphs,  with  what  valorous  citi- 
zens, are  you  splendid  ?  Your  wealth  is  a  removable  and 
uncertain  thing ;  your  fragile  beauty  will  grow  old ;  your 
delicacy  is  shameful  and  feminine  ;  but  these  make  you  noticed 
by  the  false  judgments  of  the  populace  !  Do  you  glory  in 
your  merchants  and  your  artists  ?  I  speak  imprudently  ;  but 
the  one  are  tenaciously  avaricious  in  their  servile  trades ;  and 
Art,  which  once  was  so  noble,  and  became  a  second  nature, 
struck  by  the  same  avarice,  is  now  as  corrupted,  and  nothing 
worth !  Do  you  glory  in  the  baseness  and  the  listlessness  of 
those  idlers,  who,  because  their  ancestors  are  remembered, 
attempt  to  raise  up  among  you  a  nobility  to  govern  you,  ever 
by  robbery,  by  treachery,  by  falsehood!  Ah!  miserable 
mother !  open  thine  eyes ;  cast  them  with  some  remorse  on 
what  thou  hast  done,  and  blush,  at  least,  reputed  wise  as  thou 
art,  to  have  had  in  your  errors  so  fatal  a  choice !  Why  not 
rather  imitate  the  acts  of  those  cities  who  so  keenly  disputed 
merely  for  the  honour  of  the  birthplace  of  the  divine  Homer  ? 
Mantua,  our  neighbour,  counts  as  the  greatest  fame  which 
remains  for  her,  that  Virgil  was  a  Mantuan !  and  holds  his 
very  name  in  such  reverence,  that  not  only  in  public  places, 
but  in  the  most  private,  we  see  his  sculptured  image !  You 
only,  while  you  were  made  famous  by  illustrious  men,  you 
only  have  shown  no  care  for  your  great  poet.  Your  Dante 
Alighieri  died  in  exile,  to  which  you  Unjustly,  envious  of  his 
greatness,  destined  him !  A  crime  not  to  be  remembered, 
that  the  mother  should  bear  an  envious  malignity  to  the  vir- 
tues of  a  son  !  Now  cease  to  be  unjust !  He  cannot  do  you 
that,  now  dead,  which  living  he  never  did  do  to  you  !  He 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


339 


lies  under  another  sky  than  yours,  and  you  never  can  see  him 
again,  but  on  that  day,  when  all  your  citizens  shall  view  him, 
and  the  great  Remunerator  shall  examine,  and  shall  punish ! 
If  anger,  hatred,  and  enmity  are  buried  with  a  man,  as  it  is  be- 
lieved, begin  then  to  return  to  yourself ;  begin  to  be  ashamed 
to  have  acted  against  your  ancient  humanity  ;  begin,  then,  to 
wish  to  appear  a  mother,  and  not  a  cold  negligent  step-dame. 
Yield  your  tears  to  your  son ;  yield  your  maternal  piety  to 
him  whom  once  you  repulsed,  and,  living,  cast  away  from 
you !  At  least  think  of  possessing  him  dead,  and  restore 
your  citizenship,  your  award,  and  your  grace,  to  his  memory. 
He  was  a  son  who  held  you  in  reverence,  and  though  long  an 
exile,  he  always  called  himself,  and  would  be  called  a  Floren- 
tine !  He  held  you  ever  above  all  others ;  ever  he  loved 
you  !  What  will  you  then  do  ?  Will  you  remain  obstinate 
in  iniquity?  Will  you  practise  less  humanity  than  the  bar- 
barians ?  You  wish  that  the  world  should  believe  that  you 
are  the  sister  of  famous  Troy,  and  the  daughter  of  Rome ; 
assuredly  the  children  should  resemble  their  fathers  and  their 
ancestors.  Priam,  in  his  misery,  bought  the  corpse  of  Hector 
with  gold ;  and  Rome  would  possess  the  bones  of  the  first 
Scipio,  and  removed  them  from  Linternum,  those  bones, 
which,  dying,  so  justly  he  had  denied  her.  Seek  then  to  be 
the  true  guardian  of  your  Dante,  claim  him !  show  this  humane 
feeling,  claim  him !  you  may  securely  do  this :  I  am  certain 
he  will  not  be  returned  to  you ;  but  thus  at  once  you  may 
betray  some  mark  of  compassion,  and,  not  having  him  again, 
still  enjoy  your  ancient  cruelty  !  Alas  !  what  comfort  am  I 
bringing  you  !  I  almost  believe,  that  if  the  dead  could  feel, 
the  body  of  Dante  would  not  rise  to  return  to  you,  for  he  is 
lying  in  Ravenna,  whose  hallowed  soil  is  everywhere  covered 
with  the  ashes  of  saints.  Would  Dante  quit  this  blessed 
company  to  mingle  with  the  remains  of  those  hatreds  and  in- 
iquities which  gave  him  no  rest  in  life  ?  The  relics  of  Dante, 
even  among  the  bodies  of  emperors  and  of  martyrs,  and  of 
their  illustrious  ancestors,  is  prized  as  a  treasure,  for  there 


340  SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 

his  works  are  looked  on  with  admiration ;  those  works  of 
which  you  have  not  yet  known  to  make  yourselves  worthy. 
His  birthplace,  his  origin,  remains  for  you,  spite  of  your 
ingratitude !  and  this  Ravenna  envies  you,  while  she  glories 
in  your  honours,  which  she  has  snatched  from  you  through 
ages  yet  to  come !  " 

Such  was  the  deep  emotion  which  opened  Boccaccio's 
heart  in  this  sentimental  biography,  and  which  awoke  even 
shame  and  confusion  in  the  minds  of  the  Florentines ;  they 
blushed  for  their  old  hatreds,  and,  with  awakened  sympathies, 
they  hastened  to  honour  the  memory  of  their  great  bard.  By 
order  of  the  city,  the  Divina  Commedia  Avas  publicly  read 
and  explained  to  the  people.  Boccaccio,  then  sinking  under 
the  infirmities  of  age,  roused  his  departing  genius :  still  was 
there  marrow  in  the  bones  of  the  aged  lion,  and  he  engaged 
in  the  task  of  composing  his  celebrated  Commentaries  on  the 
Divina  Commedia. 

In  this  class  of  sentimental  biography  I  would  place  a  spe- 
cies which  the  historian  Carte  noticed  in  his  literary  travels 
on  the  Continent,  in  pursuit  of  his  historical  design.  He 
found,  preserved  among  several  ancient  families  of  France, 
their  domestic  annals.  "With  a  warm,  patriotic  spirit, 
worthy  of  imitation,  they  have  often  carefully  preserved  in 
their  families  the  acts  of  their  ancestors."  This  delight  and 
pride  of  the  modern  Gauls  in  the  great  and  good  deeds 
.of  their  ancestors,  preserved  in  domestic  archives,  will  be 
ascribed  to  their  folly  or  their  vanity ;  yet  in  that  folly  there 
may  be  so  much  wisdom,  and  in  that  vanity  there  may  be  so 
much  greatness,  that  the  one  will  amply  redeem  the  other. 

This  custom  has  been  rarely  adopted  among  ourselves  ; 
we  have,  however,  a  few  separate  histories  of  some  ancient 
families,  as  those  of  Mordaunt,  and  of  Warren.  One  of  the 
most  remarkable  is  "A  Genealogical  History  of  the  House  of 
Yvery,  in  its  different  branches  of  Yvery,  Luvel,  Perceval, 
and  Gournay."    Two  large  volumes,  closely  printed,*  ex- 

*  This  work  was  published  in  1742,  and  the  scarcity  of  these  volumes 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


341 


patiating  on  the  characters  and  events  of  a  single  family  with 
the  grave  pomp  of  a  herald,  but  more  particularly  the  idolatry 
of  the  writer  for  ancient  nobility,  and  his  contempt  for  that 
growing  rank  in  society  whom  he  designates  as  "  New  Men," 
provoked  the  ridicule  at  least  of  the  aspersed.*  This  extra- 
ordinary work,  notwithstanding  its  absurdities  in  its  general 
result,  has  left  behind  a  deep  impression.  Drawn  from  the 
authentic  family  records,  it  is  not  without  interest  that  we  toil 
through  its  copious  pages  ;  we  trace  with  a  romantic  sym- 
pathy the  fortunes  of  the  descendants  of  the  House  of  Yvery, 
from  that  not-forgotten  hero  le  vaillant  Perceval  chevalier 
de  la  Table  Honde,  to  the  Norman  Baron  Asselin,  surnamed 
the  Wolf,  for  his  bravery  or  his  ferocity ;  thence  to  the  Cav- 
alier of  Charles  the  First,  Sir  Philip  Perceval,  who,  having 
gloriously  defended  his  castle,  was  at  length  deprived  of  his 
lordly  possessions,  but  never  of  his  loyalty,  and  died  obscurely 
in  the  metropolis,  of  a  broken  heart,  till  we  reach  the  polished 
nobleman,  the  Lord  Egmont  of  the  Georges. 

The  nation  has  lost  many  a  noble  example  of  men  and 
women  acting  a  great  part  on  great  occasions,  and  then  re- 
treating to  the  shade  of  privacy  ;  and  we  may  be  confident 
that  many  a  name  has  not  been  inscribed  on  the  roll  of  national 
glory  only  from  wanting  a  few  drops  of  ink  !  Such  domestic 
annals  may  yet  be  viewed  in  the  family  records  at  Appleby 
Castle  !  Anne,  Countess  of  Pembroke,  was  a  glorious  woman, 

was  felt  in  Granger's  day,  for  they  obtained  then  the  considerable  price  of 
four  guineas;  some  time  ago  a  fine  copy  was  sold  for  thirty  at  a  sale,  and 
a  cheap  copy  was  offered  to  me  at  twelve  guineas.  These  volumes  should 
contain  seventeen  portraits.  The  first  was  written  by  Mr.  Anderson,  who, 
dying  before  the  second  appeared,  Lord  Egmont,  from  the  materials  An- 
derson had  left,  concluded  his  family  history — con  amove. 

*  Mr.  Anderson,  the  writer  of  the  first  volume,  was  a  feudal  enthusiast; 
he  has  thrown  out  an  odd  notion  that  the  commercial,  or  the  wealthy  class, 
had  intruded  on  the  dignity  of  the  ancient  nobility;  but  as  wealth  has 
raised  such  high  prices  for  labour,  commodities,  &c.  it  had  reached  its 
neplus  ultra,  and  commerce  could  be  carried  on  no  longer!  He  has  ven- 
tured on  this  amusing  prediction,  "As  it  is,  therefore,  evident  that  new 
men  will  never  rise  again  in  any  age  with  such  advantages  of  wealth,  at  least 
in  considerable  numbers,  their  party  will  gradually  decrease." 


342 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


the  descendant  of  two  potent  northern  families,  the  Veteri- 
ponts  and  the  Cliffords. — She  lived  in  a  state  of  regal  magni- 
ficence and  independence,  inhabiting  five  or  seven  castles  ; 
yet  though  her  magnificent  spirit  poured  itself  out  in  her  ex- 
tended charities,  and  though  her  independence  mated  that  of 
monarchs,  yet  she  herself,  in  her  domestic  habits,  lived  as  a 
hermit  in  her  own  castles ;  and  though  only  acquainted  with 
her  native  language,  she  had  cultivated  her  mind  in  many 
parts  of  learning ;  and  as  Donne,  in  his  way,  observes,  "  she 
knew  how  to  converse  of  every  thing  ;  from  predestination  to 
slea-silk."  Her  favourite  design  was  to  have  materials  col- 
lected for  the  history  of  those  two  potent  northern  families  to 
whom  she  was  allied  ;  and  at  a  considerable  expense  she 
employed  learned  persons  to  make  collections  for  this  pur- 
pose, from  the  records  in  the  Tower,  the  Rolls,  and  other 
depositories  of  manuscripts :  Gilpin  had  seen  three  large 
volumes  fairly  transcribed.  Anecdotes  of  a  great  variety  of 
characters,  who  had  exerted  themselves  on  very  important 
occasions,  compose  these  family  records — and  induce  one  to 
wish  that  the  public  were  in  possession  of  such  annals  of  the 
domestic  life  of  heroes  and  of  sages,  who  have  only  failed  in 
obtaining  an  historian  !  * 

A  biographical  monument  of  this  nature,  which  has  passed 
through  the  press,  will  sufficiently  prove  the  utility  of  this 
class  of  sentimental  biography.  It  is  the  life  of  Robert  Price, 
a  Welsh  lawyer,  and  an  ancestor  of  the  gentleman  whose  in- 
genuity, in  our  days,  has  refined  the  principles  of  the  Pictu- 
resque in  Art.  This  life  is  announced  as  "  printed  by  the 
appointment  of  the  family ;  "  but  it  must  not  be  considered 
merely  as  a  tribute  of  private  affection  ;  and  how  we  are  at 
this  day  interested  in  the  actions  of  a  Welsh  lawyer  in  the 
reign  of  William  the  Third,  whose  name  has  probably  never 
been  consigned  to  the  page  of  history,  remains  to  be  told. 

*  Much  curious  matter  about  the  old  Countess  of  Westmoreland  and 
her  seven  castles  may  be  found  in  Whitaker's  History  of  Craven,  and  in 
Pennant. 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


343 


Robert  Price,  after  having  served  Charles  the  Second,  lived 
latterly  in  the  eventful  times  of  William  the  Third — he  was 
probably  of  Tory  principles,  for  on  the  arrival  of  the  Dutch 
prince,  he  was  removed  from  the  attorney-generalship  of 
Glamorgan.  The  new  monarch  has  been  accused  of  favour- 
itism, and  of  an  eagerness  in  showering  exorbitant  grants  on 
some  of  his  foreigners,  which  soon  raised  a  formidable  oppo- 
sition in  the  jealous  spirit  of  Englishmen.  The  grand  favour- 
ite, William  Bentinck,  after  being  raised  to  the  Earldom  of 
Portland,  had  a  grant  bestowed  on  him  of  three  lordships,  in 
the  county  of  Denbigh.  The  patriot  of  his  native  country — 
a  title  which  the  Welsh  had  already  conferred  on  Robert 
Price — then  rose  to  assert  the  rights  of  his  father-land,  and 
his  speeches  are  as  admirable  for  their  knowledge  as  their 
spirit.  "The  submitting  of  1500  freeholders  to  the  will  of  a 
Dutch  lord  was,"  as  he  sarcastically  declared,  "  putting  them 
in  a  worse  posture  than  their  former  estate,  when  under 
William  the  Conqueror  and  his  Norman  lords.  England 
must  not  be  tributary  to  strangers — we  must,  like  patriots, 
stand  by  our  country — otherwise,  when  God  shall  send  us  a 
Prince  of  Wales,  he  may  have  such  a  present  of  a  crown 
made  him  as  a  Pope  did  to  King  John,  who  was  surnamed 
Sans-terre,  and  was  by  his  father  made  Lord  of  Ireland, 
which  grant  was  confirmed  by  the  Pope,  who  sent  him  a 
crown  of  peacocks'  feathers,  in  derogation  of  his  power,  and 
the  poverty  of  his  country."  Robert  Price  asserted  that  the 
king  could  not,  by  the  Bill  of  Rights,  alien  or  give  away  the 
inheritance  of  a  prince  of  Wales  without  the  consent  of  par- 
liament. He  concluded  a  copious  and  patriotic  speech,  by 
proposing  that  an  address  be  presented  to  the  king,  to  put  an 
immediate  stop  to  the  grant  now  passing  to  the  Earl  of  Port- 
land for  the  lordships,  &c. 

This  speech  produced  such  an  effect,  that  the  address  was 
carried  unanimously ;  and  the  king,  though  he  highly  resented 
the  speech  of  Robert  Price,  sent  a  civil  message  to  the  com- 
mons, declaring  that  he  should  not  have  given  Lord  Portland 


344 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


those  lands,  had  he  imagined  the  House  of  Commons  could 
have  been  concerned ;  "  I  will  therefore  recall  the  grant ! " 
On  receiving  the  royal  message,  Robert  Price  drew  up  a  reso- 
lution to  which  the  house  assented,  that  "  to  procure  or  pass 
exorbitant  grants  by  any  member  of  the  privy  council,  &c. 
was  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor."  The  speech  of  Robert 
Price  contained  truths  too  numerous  and  too  bold  to  suffer 
the  light  during  that  reign ;  but  this  speech  against  foreigners 
wad  printed  the  year  after  King  William's  death,  with  this 
title,  "  Gloria  Cambrice,  or  the  speech  of  a  bold  Briton  in 
parliament,  against  a  Dutch  Prince  of  "Wales,"  with  this 
motto,  Opposuit  et  Vicit.  Such  was  the  great  character  of 
Robert  Price,  that  he  was  made  a  Welsh  judge  by  the  very 
sovereign  whose  favourite  plans  he  had  so  patriotically 
thwarted. 

Another  marked  event  in  the  life  of  this  English  patriot 
was  a  second  noble  stand  he  made  against  the  royal  author- 
ity, when  in  opposition  to  the  public  good.  The  secret  history 
of  a  quarrel  between  George  the  First  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  afterwards  George  the  Second,  on  the  birth  of  a  son, 
appears  in  this  life  ;  and  when  the  prince  in  disgrace  left  the 
palace,  his  royal  highness  proposed  taking  his  children  and 
the  princess  with  him ;  but  the  king  detained  the  children, 
claiming  the  care  of  the  royal  offspring  as  a  royal  prerogative. 
It  now  became  a  legal  point  to  ascertain  "  whether  the  edu- 
cation of  his  majesty's  grandchildren,  and  the  care  of  their 
marriages,  &c.  belonged  of  right  to  his  majesty  as  king  of 
this  realm,  or  not  ?  "  Ten  of  the  judges  obsequiously  allowed 
of  the  prerogative  to  the  full.  Robert  Price  and  another 
judge  decided  that  the  education,  &c.  was  the  right  of  the 
father,  although  the  marriages  was  that  of  his  majesty  as  king 
of  this  realm,  yet  not  exclusive  of  the  prince,  their  father. 
He  assured  the  king,  that  the  ten  obsequious  judges  had  no 
authority  to  support  their  precipitate  opinion ;  all  the  books 
and  precedents  cannot  form  a  prerogative  for  the  king  of  this 
realm  to  have  the  care  and  education  of  his  grandchildren 


SENTIMENTAL  BIOGRAPHY. 


345 


during  the  life  and  without  the  consent  of  their  father — a 
prerogative  unknown  to  the  laws  of  England!  He  pleads 
for  the  rights  of  a  father,  with  the  spirit  of  one  who  feels 
them,  as  well  as  with  legal  science  and  historical  knowledge. 

Such  were  the  two  great  incidents  in  the  life  of  this  Welsh 
judge  !  Yet,  had  the  family  not  found  one  to  commemorate 
these  memorable  events  in  the  life  of  their  ancestor,  we  had 
lost  the  noble  picture  of  a  constitutional  interpreter  of  the 
laws,  an  independent  country  gentleman,  and  an  Englishman 
jealous  of  the  excessive  predominance  of  ministerial  or  royal 
influence. 

Cicero,  and  others,  have  informed  us  that  the  ancient  his- 
tory of  Rome  itself  was  composed  out  of  such  accounts  of 
private  families,  to  which,  indeed,  we  must  add  those  annals 
or  registers  of  public  events  which  unquestionably  were  pre- 
served in  the  archives  of  the  Temples  by  the  Priests.  But 
the  history  of  the  individual  may  involve  public  interest, 
whenever  the  skill  of  the  writer  combines  with  the  impor- 
tance of  the  event.  Messala,  the  orator,  gloried  in  having 
composed  many  volumes  of  the  genealogies  of  the  Nobility 
of  Rome  ;  and  Atticus  wrote  the  genealogy  of  Brutus  to 
prove  him  descended  from  Junius  Brutus,  the  expulsor  of  the 
Tarquins,  aud  founder  of  the  Republic,  near  five  hundred 
years  before. 

Another  class  of  this  sentimental  biography  was  projected 
by  the  late  Elizabeth  Hamilton.  This  was  to  have  consisted 
of  a  series  of  w7hat  she  called  comparative  biography,  and  an 
ancient  character  was  to  have  been  paralleled  by  a  modern 
one.  Occupied  by  her  historical  romance  with  the  character 
of  Agrippina,  she  sought  in  modern  history  for  a  partner  of 
hei  own  sex,  and  "  one  who,  like  her,  had  experienced  vicis- 
situdes of  fortune ; "  and  she  found  no  one  better  qualified 
than  the  princess  palatine,  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  James 
the  First.  Her  next  life  was  to  have  been  that  of  Seneca, 
with  "  the  scenes  and  persons  of  which  her  life  of  Agrippina 
had  familiarized  her ; "  and  the  contrast  or  the  parallel  was 


346 


LITERARY  PARALLELS. 


to  have  been  Locke  ;  which,  well  managed,  she  thought,  would 
have  been  sufficiently  striking.  It  seems  to  me,  that  it  would 
rather  have  afforded  an  evidence  of  her  invention  !  Such  a 
biographical  project  reminds  one  of  Plutarch's  Parallel.-,  and 
might  incur  the  danger  of  displaying  more  ingenuity  than 
truth.  The  sage  of  Cheronea  must  often  have  racked  his 
invention  to  help  out  his  parallels,  bending  together,  to  make 
them  similar,  the  most  unconnected  events  and  the  mo.-t  dis- 
tinct feelings ;  and,  to  keep  his  parallels  in  two  straight  lines, 
he  probably  made  a  free  use  of  augmentatives  and  diminu- 
tives to  help  out  his  pair,  who  might  have  been  equal,  and 
yet  not  alike ! 

Our  Father-land  is  prodigal  of  immortal  names,  or  names 
which  might  be  made  immortal ;  Gibbon  once  contemplated 
with  complacency,  the  very  ideal  of  sentimental  biogra- 
phy, and  we  may  regret  that  he  has  only  left  the  project ! 
"  I  have  long  revolved  in  my  mind  a  volume  of  biographical 
writing ;  the  lives  or  rather  the  characters  of  the  most  emi- 
nent persons  in  arts  and  arms,  in  church  and  state,  who  have 
flourished  in  Britain,  from  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth  to 
the  present  age.  The  subject  would  afford  a  rich  display  of 
human  nature  and  domestic  history,  and  powerfully  address 
itself  to  the  feelings  of  every  Englishman." 


LITERARY  PARALLELS. 

An  opinion  on  this  subject  in  the  preceding  article  has  led 
me  to  a  further  investigation.  It  may  be  right  to  acknowl- 
edge that  so  attractive  is  this  critical  and  moral  amusement 
of  comparing  great  characters  with  one  another,  that,  among 
others,  Bishop  Hurd  once  proposed  to  write  a  book  of  Paral- 
lels, and  has  furnished  a  specimen  in  that  of  Petrarch  and 
Rousseau,  and  intended  for  another  that  of  Erasmus  with 
Cicero.    It  is  amusing  to  observe  how  a  lively  and  subtle 


LITERARY  PARALLELS. 


341 


mind  can  strike  out  resemblances,  and  make  contraries  ac- 
cord, and  at  the  same  time  it  may  show  the  pinching  difficul- 
ties through  which  a  parallel  is  pushed,  till  it  ends  in  a 
paradox. 

Ilurd  says  of  Petrarch  and  Rousseau — "  Both  were  im- 
pelled by  an  equal  enthusiasm,  though  directed  towards  dif- 
ferent objects  :  Petrarch's  towards  the  glory  of  the  Roman 
name,  Rousseau's  towards  his  idol  of  a  state  of  nature  ;  the 
one  religious,  the  other  un  esprit  fort ;  but  may  not  Pe- 
trarch's spite  to  Babylon  be  considered,  in  his  time,  as  a 
species  of  free-thinking " — and  concludes,  that  "  both  were 
mad,  but  of  a  different  nature."  Unquestionably  there  were 
features  much  alike,  and  almost  peculiar  to  these  two  literary 
characters  ;  but  I  doubt  if  Hurd  has  comprehended  them  in 
the  parallel. 

I  now  give  a  specimen  of  those  parallels  which  have  done 
so  much  mischief  in  the  literary  world,  when  drawn  by  a 
hand  which  covertly  leans  on  one  side.  An  elaborate  one  of 
this  sort  was  composed  by  Longolius  or  Longuel,  between 
Budyeus  and  Erasmus.*  This  man,  though  of  Dutch  origin, 
affected  to  pass  for  a  Frenchman,  and,  to  pay  his  court  to  his 
chosen  people,  gives  the  preference  obliquely  to  the  French 
Budaeus  ;  though,  to  make  a  show  of  impartiality,  he  acknowl- 
edges that  Francis  the  First  had  awarded  it  to  Erasmus ;  but 
probably  he  did  not  infer  that  kings  were  the  most  able  re- 
viewers !  This  parallel  was  sent  forth  during  the  lifetime  of 
both  these  great  scholars,  who  had  long  been  correspondents, 
but  the  publication  of  the  parallel  interrupted  their  friendly 
intercourse.  Erasmus  returned  his  compliments  and  thanks 
to  Longolius,  but  at  the  same  time  insinuates  a  gentle  hint, 
that  he  was  not  overpleased.  "What  pleases  me  most," 
Erasmus  writes,  "is  the  just  preference  you  have  given  Bu- 
dseus  over  me ;  I  confess  you  are  even  too  economical  in 
your  praise  of  him,  as  you  are  too  prodigal  in  mine.  I  thank 
you  for  informing  me  what  it  is  the  learned  desire  to  find  in 
*  It  is  noticed  by  Jortin  in  his  Life  of  Erasmus,  vol.  i.  p.  160. 


348 


LITERARY  PARALLELS. 


me ;  my  self-love  suggests  many  little  excuses,  with  which, 
you  observe,  I  am  apt  to  favour  my  defects.  If  I  am  care- 
less, it  arises  partly  from  my  ignorance,  and  more  from  my 
indolence ;  I  am  so  constituted,  that  I  cannot  conquer  my  na- 
ture ;  I  precipitate  rather  than  compose,  and  it  is  far  more 
irksome  for  me  to  revise  than  to  write." 

This  parallel  between  Erasmus  and  Budaeus,  though  the 
parallel  itself  was  not  of  a  malignant  nature,  yet  disturbed 
the  quiet,  and  interrupted  the  friendship  of  both.  When 
Longolius  discovered  that  the  Parisian  surpassed  the  Hol- 
lander in  Greek  literature  and  the  knowledge  of  the  civil 
law,  and  wrote  more  learnedly  and  laboriously,  how  did  this 
detract  from  the  finer  genius  and  the  varied  erudition  of  the 
more  delightful  writer?  The  parallelist  compares  Erasmus 
to  "  a  river  swelling  its  ,waters  and  often  overflowing  its 
banks;  Budceus  rolled  on  like  a  majestic  stream,  ever  re- 
straining its  waves  within  its  bed.  The  Frenchman  has 
more  nerve,  and  blood,  and  life,  and  the  Hollander  more  ful- 
ness, freshness,  and  colour." 

The  taste  for  biographical  parallels  must  have  reached  us 
from  Plutarch ;  and  there  is  something  malicious  in  our  na- 
ture which  inclines  us  to  form  comparative  estimates,  usually 
with  a  view  to  elevate  one  great  man  at  the  cost  of  another, 
whom  we  would  secretly  depreciate.  Our  political  parties  at 
home  have  often  indulged  in  these  fallacious  parallels,  and 
Pitt  and  Fox  once  balanced  the  scales,  not  by  the  standard 
weights  and  measures  which  ought  to  have  been  used,  but  by 
the  adroitness  of  the  hand  that  pressed  down  the  scale.  In 
literature,  these  comparative  estimates  have  proved  most  pre- 
judicial. A  finer  model  exists  not  than  the  parallel  of  Dry- 
den  and  Pope,  by  Johnson  ;  for,  without  designing  any  undue 
preference,  his  vigorous  judgment  has  analyzed  them  by  his 
contrasts,  and  has  rather  shown  their  distinctness  than  their 
similarity.  But  literary  parallels  usually  end  in  producing 
parties ;  and,  as  I  have  elsewhere  observed,  often  originate 
in  undervaluing  one  man  of  genius,  for  his  deficiency  in  some 


THE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA.  349 


eminent  quality  possessed  by  the  other  man  of  genius ;  they 
not  unfrequently  proceed  from  adverse  tastes,  and  are  formed 
with  the  concealed  design  of  establishing  some  favourite  one. 
The  world  of  literature  has  been  deeply  infected  with  this 
folly.  Virgil  probably  was  often  vexed  in  his  days  by  a  par- 
allel with  Homer,  and  the  Homerians  combated  with  the 
Virgilians.  Modern  Italy  was  long  divided  into  such  liter- 
ary sects  :  a  perpetual  skirmishing  is  carried  on  between  the 
Ariostoists  and  the  Tassoists ;  and  feuds  as  dire  as  those 
between  two  Highland  clans  were  raised  concerning  the 
Petrarchists  and  the  Chiabrerists.  Old  Corneille  lived  to 
bow  his  venerable  genius  before  a  parallel  with  Racine  ;  and 
no  one  has  suffered  more  unjustly  by  such  arbitrary  criticisms 
than  Pope,  for  a  strange  unnatural  civil  war  has  often  been 
renewed  between  the  Drydenists  and  the  Popeists.  Two 
men  of  great  genius  should  never  be  depreciated  by  the  mis- 
applied ingenuity  of  a  parallel ;  on  such  occasions  we  ought 
to  conclude  magis  pares  quam  similes. 


THE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA. 

As  a  literary  curiosity,  I  notice  a  subject  which  might 
rather  enter  into  the  history  of  religion.  It  relates  to  the 
extraordinary  state  of  our  English  Bibles,  which  were  for 
some  time  suffered  to  be  so  corrupted  that  no  books  ever  yet 
swarmed  with  such  innumerable  errata ! 

These  errata  unquestionably  were  in  great  part  voluntary 
commissions,  passages  interpolated,  and  meanings  forged  for 
certain  purposes  ;  sometimes  to  sanction  the  new  creed  of  a 
half-hatched  sect,  and  sometimes  with  an  intention  to  destroy 
all  scriptural  authority  by  a  confusion,  or  an  omission  of 
texts — the  whole  was  left  open  to  the  option  or  the  malignity 
of  the  editors,  who,  probably,  like  certain  ingenious  wine- 
merchants,  contrived  to  accommodate  "  the  waters  of  life  "  to 


350    THE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA. 


their  customers'  peculiar  taste.  They  had  also  a  project  of 
printing  Bibles  as  cheaply  and  in  a  form  as  contracted  as 
they  possibly  could  for  the  common  people  ;  and  they  pro- 
ceeded till  it  nearly  ended  with  having  no  Bible  at  all :  and, 
as  Fuller,  in  his  "  Mixt  Contemplations  on  better  Times," 
alluding  to  this  circumstance,  with  not  one  of  his  lucky  quib- 
bles, observes,  "  The  small  price  of  the  Bible  has  caused  the 
small  prizing  of  the  Bible." 

This  extraordinary  attempt  on  the  English  Bible  began 
even  before  Charles  the  First's  dethronement,  and  probably 
arose  from  an  unusual  demand  for  Bibles,  as  the  sectarian 
fanaticism  was  increasing.  Printing  of  English  Bibles  was 
an  article  of  open  trade ;  every  one  printed  at  the  lowest 
price,  and  as  fast  as  their  presses  would  allow.  Even  those 
who  were  dignified  as  "  his  Majesty's  Printers  "  were  among 
these  manufacturers  ;  for  we  have  an  account  of  a  scandalous 
omission  by  them  of  the  important  negative  in  the  seventh 
commandment !  The  Printers  were  summoned  before  the 
court  of  High  Commission,  and  this  not  served  to  bind  them 
in  a  fine  of  three  thousand  pounds !  A  prior  circumstance, 
indeed,  had  occurred,  which  induced  the  government  to  be 
more  vigilant  on  the  Biblical  Press.  The  learned  Usher, 
one  day  hastening  to  preach  at  Paul's  Cross,  entered  the 
shop  of  one  of  the  stationers,  as  booksellers  were  then  called, 
and  inquiring  for  a  Bible  of  the  London  edition,  when  he 
came  to  look  for  his  text,  to  his  astonishment  and  horror,  He 
discovered  that  the  verse  was  omitted  in  the  Bible !  This 
gave  the  first  occasion  of  complaint  to  the  king  of  the  insuf- 
ferable negligence  and  incapacity  of  the  London  press  :  and, 
says  the  manuscript  writer  of  this  anecdote,  first  bred  that 
great  contest  which  followed,  between  the  University  of 
Cambridge  and  the  London  stationers,  about  the  right  of 
printing  Bibles.* 

The  secret  bibliographical  history  of  these  times  would 
show  the  extraordinary  state  of  the  press  in  this  new  trade 
*  Harl.  MS.  6395. 


THE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA.  351 


of  Bible?.  The  writer  of  a  curious  pamphlet  exposes  the 
combination  of  those  called  the  king's  printers,  with  their 
contrivances  to  keep  up  the  prices  of  Bibles ;  their  corre- 
spondence with  the  booksellers  of  Scotland  and  Dublin,  by 
which  means  they  retained  the  privilege  in  their  own  hands : 
the  king's  London  printers  got  Bibles  printed  cheaper  at 
Edinburgh.  In  1629,  when  folio  Bibles  were  wanted,  the 
Cambridge  printers  sold  them  at  ten  shillings  in  quires ;  on 
this  the  Londoners  set  six  printing-houses  at  work,  and,  to 
annihilate  the  Cambridgians,  printed  a  similar  folio  Bible, 
but  sold  with  it  five  hundred  quarto  Roman  Bibles,  and  five 
hundred  quarto  English,  at  five  shillings  a  book ;  which 
proved  the  ruin  of  the  folio  Bibles,  by  keeping  them  down 
under  the  cost  price.  Another  competition  arose  among 
those  who  printed  English  Bibles  in  Holland,  in  duodecimo, 
with  an  English  colophon,  for  half  the  price  even  of  the 
lowest  in  London.  Twelve  thousand  of  these  duodecimo 
Bibles,  with  notes,  fabricated  in  Holland,  usually  by  our 
fugitive  sectarians,  were  seized  by  the  king's  printers,  as 
contrary  to  the  statute.*  Such  was  this  shameful  war  of 
Bibles — folios,  quartos,  and  duodecimos,  even  in  the  days  of 
Charles  the  First.  The  public  spirit  of  the  rising  sects  was 
the  real  occasion  of  these  increased  demands  for  Bibles. 

During  the  civil  wars  they  carried  on  the  same  open  trade 
and  competition,  besides  the  private  ventures  of  the  smuggled 
Bibles.  A  large  impression  of  these  Dutch  English  Bibles 
were  burnt  by  order  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  for  these 
three  errors: — 

Gen.  xxxvi.  24. — This  is  that  ass  that  found  rulers  in  the 
wilderness — for  mule. 

*  "  Scintilla,  or  a  light  broken  into  darke  Warehouses;  of  some  Printers, 
sleeping  Stationers,  and  combining  Booksellers ;  in  which  is  only  a  touch 
of  their  forestalling  and  ingrossing  of  Books  in  Pattents,  and  raysing  them 
to  excessive  prises.  Left  to  the  consideration  of  the  high  and  honourable 
House  of  Parliament,  now  assembled.  London:  No  where  to  be  sold,  but 
some  where  to  be  given.  1641." 


So2    TIIE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA. 


Ruth  iv.  13. — The  Lord  gave  her  corruption — for  con- 
ception. 

Luke  xxi.  28. — Look  up,  and  lift  up  your  hands,  for  your 
condemnation  draweth  nigh — for  redemption. 

These  errata  were  none  of  the  printer's  ;  but,  as  a  writer 
of  the  times  expresses  it,  "  egregious  blasphemies,  and  dam- 
nable errata"  of  some  sectarian,  or  some  Bellamy  editor  of 
that  day ! 

The  printing  of  Bibles  at  length  was  a  privilege  conceded 
to  one  William  Bentley ;  but  he  was  opposed  by  Hills  and 
Field;  and  a  paper  war  arose,  in  which  they  mutually 
recriminated  on  each  other,  with  equal  truth. 

Field  printed  in  1653  what  was  called  the  Pearl  Bible; 
alluding,  I  suppose,  to  that  diminutive  type  in  printing,  for  it 
could  not  derive  its  name  from  its  worth.  It  is  a  twenty- 
fours  ;  but  to  contract  the  mighty  book  into  this  dwarfishness, 
all  the  original  Hebrew  text  prefixed  to  the  Psalms,  explain- 
ing the  occasion  and  the  subject  of  their  composition,  is 
wholly  expunged.  This  Pearl  Bible,  which  may  be  in- 
spected among  the  great  collection  of  our  English  Bibles  at 
the  British  Museum,  is  set  off  by  many  notable  errata,  of 
which  these  are  noticed  : — 

Romans  vi.  13. — Neither  yield  ye  your  members  as  in- 
struments of  righteousness  unto  sin — for  unrighteousness. 

First  Corinthians  vi.  9. — Know  ye  not  that  the  unrighteous 
shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ? — for  shall  not  inherit. 

This  erratum  served  as  the  foundation  of  a  dangerous 
doctrine  ;  for  many  libertines  urged  the  text  from  this  cor- 
rupt Bible  against  the  reproofs  of  a  divine. 

This  Field  was  a  great  forger ;  and  it  is  said  that  he  re- 
ceived a  present  of  £1500  from  the  Independents  to  corrupt 
a  text  in  Acts  vi.  3,  to  sanction  the  right  of  the  people  to 
appoint  their  own  pastors.  The  corruption  was  the  easiest 
possible ;  it  was  only  to  put  a  ye  instead  of  a  we  ;  so  that  the 
right  in  Field's  Bible  emanated  from  the  people,  not  from  the 
apostles.    The  only  account  I  recollect  of  this  extraordi- 


THE  PEAKL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA.  353 

nary  state  of  our  Bibles  is  a  happy  allusion  in  a  line  of 
Butler  :— 

"  Religion  spawn'd  a  various  rout 
Of  petulant,  capricious  sects, 
The  maggots  of  corrupted  texts." 

In  other  Bibles  by  Hills  and  Field  we  may  find  such 
abundant  errata,  reducing  the  text  to  nonsense  or  to  blasphe- 
my, making  the  Scriptures  contemptible  to  the  multitude,  who 
came  to  pray,  and  not  to  scoff. 

It  is  affirmed,  in  the  manuscript  account  already  referred 
to,  that  one  Bible  swarmed  with  six  thousand  faults  !  Indeed, 
from  another  source  we  discover  that  "  Sterne,  a  solid  scholar, 
was  the  first  who  summed  up  the  three  thousand  and  six  hun- 
dred faults,  that  were  in  our  printed  Bibles  of  London."  * 
If  one  book  can  be  made  to  contain  near  four  thousand  errors, 
little  ingenuity  was  required  to  reach  to  six  thousand ;  but 
perhaps  this  is  the  first  time  so  remarkable  an  incident  in  the 
history  of  literature  has  ever  been  chronicled.  And  that 
famous  edition  of  the  Vulgate  by  Pope  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  a 
memorable  book  of  blunders,  which  commands  such  high 
prices,  ought  now  to  fall  in  value,  before  the  pearl  Bible,  in 
twenty -fours,  of  Messrs.  Hills  and  Field ! 

Mr.  Field,  and  his  worthy  coadjutor,  seem  to  have  carried 
the  favour  of  the  reigning  powers  over  their  opponents  ;  for 
I  find  a  piece  of  their  secret  history.  They  engaged  to  pay 
£500  per  annum  to  some,  "  whose  names  I  forbear  to  men- 
tion," warily  observes  the  manuscript  writer ;  and  above 
£100  per  annum  to  Mr.  Marchmont  Needham  and  his  wife, 
out  of  the  profits  of  the  sales  of  their  Bibles  ;  deriding,  insult- 
ing, and  triumphing  over  others,  out  of  their  confidence  in 
their  great  friends  and  purse,  as  if  they  were  lawless  and  free, 
both  from  offence  and  punishment.f  This  Marchmont  Need- 
ham  is  sufficiently  notorious,  and  his  secret  history  is  probably 
true ;  for  in  a  Mercurius  Politicus  of  this  unprincipled  Cob 

*  G.  Garrard's  Letter  to  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  vol.  i.  p.  208. 
f  Harl.  MS.  7580. 
VOL.  IV.  23 


354    THE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA. 


bett  of  his  day,  I  found  an  elaborate  puff  of  an  edition,  pub- 
lished by  the  annuity-grantor  to  this  Worthy  and  his  Wife! 

Not  only  had  the  Bible  to  surfer  these  indignities  of  size  and 
price,  but  the  Prayer-book  was  once  printed  in  an  illegible 
and  worn-out  type ;  on  which  the  printer  being  complained 
of,  he  stoutly  replied,  that  "  it  was  as  good  as  the  price 
afforded ;  and  being  a  book  which  all  persons  ought  to  have 
by  heart,  it  was  no  matter  whether  it  was  read  or  not,  so  that 
it  was  worn  out  in  their  hands."  The  puritans  seem  not  to 
have  been  so  nice  about  the  source  of  purity  itself. 

These  hand-bibles  of  the  sectarists,  with  their  six  thousand 
errata,  like  the  false  Duessa,  covered  their  crafty  deformity 
with  a  fair  raiment ;  for  when  the  great  Selden,  in  the  assem- 
bly of  divines,  delighted  to  confute  them  in  their  own  learn- 
ing, he  would  say,  as  Whitelock  reports,  when  they  had  cited 
a  text  to  prove  their  assertion,  "  Perhaps  in  your  little 
pocket-bible  with  gilt  leaves,"  which  they  would  often  pull 
out  and  read,  "  the  translation  may  be  so,  but  the  Greek  or 
the  Hebrew  signifies  this." 

While  these  transactions  were  occurring,  it  appears  that 
the  authentic  translation  of  the  Bible,  such  as  we  now  have 
it,  by  the  learned  translators  in  James  the  First's  time,  was 
suffered  to  lie  neglected.  The  copies  of  the  original  manu- 
script were  in  the  possession  of  two  of  the  king's  printers, 
who,  from  cowardice,  consent,  and  connivance,  suppressed 
the  publication ;  considering  that  a  Bible  full  of  errata,  and 
often,  probably,  accommodated  to  the  notions  of  certain  sec- 
tarists, was  more  valuable  than  one  authenticated  by  the 
hierarchy  !  Such  was  the  state  of  the  English  Bible  till 
] 660  !  * 

The  proverbial  expression  of  chapter  and  verse  seems 
peculiar  to  ourselves,  and,  I  suspect,  originated  in  the  puri- 
tanic period,  probably  just  before  the  civil  wars  under  Charles 
the  First,  from  the  frequent  use  of  appealing  to  the  Bible  on 

*  See  the  London  Printers'  Lamentation  on  the  Press  oppressed.  Harl. 
Coll.  iii.  280. 


THE  PEARL  BIBLES  AND  SIX  THOUSAND  ERRATA.  355 


the  most  frivolous  occasions,  practised  by  those  whom  South 
calls  "  those  mighty  men  at  chapter  and  verse."  With  a  sort 
of  religious  coquetry,  they  were  vain  of  perpetually  opening 
their  gilt  pocket  Bibles ;  they  perked  them  up  with  such  self- 
sufficiency  and  perfect  ignorance  of  the  original,  that  the 
learned  Selden  found  considerable  amusement  in  going  to 
their  "  assembly  of  divines,"  and  puzzling  or  confuting  them, 
as  wre  have  noticed.  A  ludicrous  anecdote  on  one  of  these 
occasions  is  given  by  a  contemporary,  which  shows  how 
admirably  that  learned  man  amused  himself  with  this  "  as- 
sembly of  divines  ! "  They  were  discussing  the  distance 
between  Jerusalem  and  Jericho,  with  a  perfect  ignorance  of 
sacred  or  of  ancient  geography  ;  one  said  it  was  twenty  miles, 
another  ten,  and  at  last  it  was  concluded  to  be  only  seven, 
for  this  strange  reason,  that  fish  was  brought  from  Jericho  to 
Jerusalem  market !  Selden  observed,  that  "  possibly  the  fish 
in  question  was  salted,"  and  silenced  these  acute  disputants. 

It  would  probably  have  greatly  discomposed  these  "  chap- 
ter and  verse  "  men,  to  have  informed  them  that  the  Scrip- 
tures had  neither  chapter  nor  verse !  It  is  by  no  means 
clear  how  the  holy  writings  were  anciently  divided,  and  still 
less  how  quoted  or  referred  to.  The  honour  of  the  invention 
of  the  present  arrangement  of  the  Scriptures  is  ascribed  to 
Robert  Stephens,  by  his  son,  in  the  preface  to  his  Concord- 
ance, a  task  which  he  performed  during  a  journey  on  horse- 
back from  Paris  to  London,  in  1551  ;  and  whether  it  was 
done  as  Yorick  would  in  his  Shandean  manner  lounging  on 
his  mule,  or  at  his  intermediate  baits,  he  has  received  all 
possible  thanks  for  this  employment  of  his  time.  Two  years 
afterwards  he  concluded  with  the  Bible.  But  that  the 
honour  of  every  invention  may  be  disputed,  Sanctus  Pagni- 
nus's  Bible,  printed  at  Lyons  in  1527,  seems  to  have  led  the 
way  to  these  convenient  divisions  ;  Stephens  however  im- 
proved on  Pagninus's  mode  of  paragraphical  marks  and 
marginal  verses ;  and  our  present  "  chapter  and  verse," 
more  numerous  and  more  commodiously  numbered,  were 


356 


VIEW  OF  A  PARTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE 


the  project  of  this  learned  printer,  to  recommend  his  edition 
of  the  Bible;  trade  and  learning  were  once  combined! 
Whether  in  this  arrangement  any  disturbance  of  the  conti- 
nuity of  the  text  has  followed,  is  a  subject  not  fitted  for  my 
inquiry. 


VIEW  OF  A  PARTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE  STATE 
OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS. 

Looking  over  the  manuscript  diary  of  Sir  Symonds 
d'Ewes,  I  was  struck  by  a  picture  of  the  domestic  religious 
life  which  at  that  period  was  prevalent  among  families.  Sir 
Symonds  was  a  sober  antiquary,  heated  with  no  fanaticism, 
yet  I  discovered  in  his  diary  that  he  was  a  visionary  in  his 
constitution,  macerating  his  body  by  private  fasts,  and  spirit- 
ualizing in  search  of  secret  signs.  These  ascetic  penances 
were  afterwards  succeeded  in  the  nation,  by  an  era  of  hypo- 
critical sanctity  ;  and  we  may  trace  this  last  stage  of  insanity 
and  of  immorality,  closing  with  impiety.  This  would  be  a 
dreadful  picture  of  religion,  if  for  a  moment  we  supposed  that 
it  were  religion;  that  consolatory  power  which  has  its 
source  in  our  feelings,  and  according  to  the  derivation  of  its 
expressive  term,  binds  men  together.  With  us  it  was  sec- 
tarism,  whose  origin  and  causes  we  shall  not  now  touch  on, 
which  broke  out  into  so  many  monstrous  shapes,  when  every 
pretended  reformer  was  guided  by  his  own  peculiar  fancies  : 
we  have  lived  to  prove  that  folly  and  wickedness  are  rarely 
obsolete. 

The  age  of  Sir  Symonds  d'Ewes,  who  lived  through  the 
times  of  Charles  the  First,  was  religious ;  for  the  character 
of  this  monarch  had  all  the  seriousness  and  piety  not  found 
in  the  bonhomie,  and  careless  indecorums  of  his  father,  whose 
manners  of  the  Scottish  court  were  moulded  on  the  gaieties 
of  the  French,  from  the  ancient  intercourse  of  the  French 


STATE  OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS. 


357 


and  Scottish  governments.  But  this  religious  age  of  Charles 
the  First  presents  a  strange  contrast  with  the  licentiousness 
which  subsequently  prevailed  among  the  people :  there  seems 
to  be  a  secret  connection  between  a  religious  and  an  irrelig- 
ious period  :  the  levity  of  popular  feeling  is  driven  to  and 
fro  by  its  reaction  ;  when  man  has  been  once  taught  to  con- 
temn his  mere  humanity,  his  abstract  fancies  open  a  secret 
bye-path  to  his  presumed  salvation  ;  he  wanders  till  he  is 
lost — he  trembles  till  he  dotes  in  melancholy — he  raves  till 
truth  itself  is  no  longer  immutable.  The  transition  to  a  very 
opposite  state  is  equally  rapid  and  vehement.  Such  is  the 
history  of  man  when  his  religion  is  founded  on  misdirected 
feelings,  and  such  too  is  the  reaction  so  constantly  operating 
in  all  human  affairs. 

The  writer  of  this  diary  did  not  belong  to  those  non-con- 
formists who  arranged  themselves  in  hostility  to  the  estab- 
lished religion  and  political  government  of  our  country.  A 
private  gentleman  and  a  phlegmatic  antiquary,  Sir  Symonds 
withal  was  a  zealous  Church-of-England  protestant.  Yet 
amidst  the  mystical  allusions  of  an  age  of  religious  contro- 
versies, we  see  these  close  in  the  scenes  we  are  about  to 
open,  and  find  this  quiet  gentleman  tormenting  himself,  and 
his  lady,  by  watching  for  "  certain  evident  marks  and  signs 
of  an  assurance  for  a  better  life ; "  with  I  know  not  how 
many  distinct  sorts  of  "  Graces." 

I  give  an  extract  from  the  manuscript  diary : — 

"  I  spent  this  day  chiefly  in  private  fasting,  prayer,  and  other  religious 
exercises.  This  was  the  first  time  that  I  ever  practised  this  duty,  having 
always  before  declined  it,  by  reason  of  the  papists'  superstitious  abuses  of  it 
I  had  partaken  formerly  of  public  fasts,  but  never  knew  the  use  and  benefit 
of  the  same  duty  performed  alone  in  secret,  or  with  others  of  mine  own 
family  in  private.  In  these  particulars,  I  had  my  knowledge  much  en- 
larged by  the  religious  converse  I  enjoyed  at  Albury-Lodge,  for  there  also 
I  shortly  after  entered  upon  framing  an  evidence  of  marks  and  signs  for  my 
assurance  of  a  better  life. 

"  I  found  much  benefit  of  my  secret  fasting,  from  a  learned  discom-se  on 
fasting  by  Mr.  Henry  Mason,  and  obseiwed  his  rule,  that  Christians  ought 
to  sit  sometimes  apart  for  their  ordinary  humiliation  and  fasting,  and  so 


358         VIEW  OF  A  PARTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE 


intend  to  continue  the  same  course  as  long  as  my  health  will  permit  me 
Yet  did  I  vary  the  times  and  duration  of  my  fasting.  At  first,  before  I 
had  finished  the  marks  and  si<jns  of  my  assurance  of  a  better  life,  which 
scrutimj  and  search  cost  me  some  threescore  days  of  fasting,  I  performed  it 
sometimes  twice  in  the  space  of  five  weeks,  then  once  each  month,  or  a 
little  sooner  or  later,  and  then  also  I  sometimes  ended  the  duties  of  the 
day,  and  took  some  little  food  about  three  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon. 
But  for  divers  years  last  past,  I  constantly  abstained  from  all  food  the 
whole  day.  I  fasted  till  supper-time,  about  six  in  the  evening,  and  spent 
ordinarily  about  eight  or  nine  hours  in  the  performance  of  re'igious  duties; 
one  part  of  which  was  prayer  and  confession  of  sins,  to  which  end  I  wrote 
down  a  catalogue  of  cdl  my  known  sins,  orderly.  These  were  all  sins  of 
infirmity ;  for,  through  God's  grace,  I  was  so  far  from  allowing  myself  in 
the  practice  and  commission  of  any  actual  sin,  as  I  durst  not  take  upon 
me  any  controversial  sins,  as  usury,  carding,  dicing,  mixt  dancing,  and  the 
like,  because  I  was  in  mine  own  judgment  persuaded  they  were  unlawful. 
Till  I  had  finished  my  assurance  first  in  English  and  afterwards  in  Latin, 
with  a  large  and  an  elaborate  preface  in  Latin  also  to  it ;  I  spent  a  great 
part  of  the  day  at  that  work,  &c. 

"  Saturday,  December  1,  1627,  I  devoted  to  my  usual  course  of  secret 
fasting,  and  drew  divers  signs  of  my  assurance  of  a  better  life,  from  the 
grace  of  repentance,  having  before  gone  through  the  graces  of  knowledge, 
faith,  hope,  love,  zeal,  patience,  humility,  and  joy;  and  drawing  several 
marks  from  them  on  like  days  of  humiliation  for  the  greater  part.  My 
dear  wife  beginning  also  to  draw  most  certain  signs  of  her  own  future  hap- 
piness after  death  from  several  graces. 

"January  19, 1628. — Saturday  I  spent  in  secret  humiliation  and  fastings, 
and  finished  my  whole  assurance  to  a  better  life,  consisting  of  three  score 
and  four  signs,  or  marks  drawn  from  several  graces.  I  made  some  small 
alterations  in  the  signs  afterwards;  and  when  I  turned  them  into  the  Latin 
tongue,  I  enriched  the  margent  with  further  proofs  and  authorities.  I  found 
much  comfort  and  reposedness  of  spirit  from  them,  which  shows  the 
devilish  sophisms  of  the  papists,  anabaptists,  and  pseudo-Lutherans,  and 
profane  atheistical  men,  who  say  that  assurance  brings  forth  presumption, 
and  a  careless  wicked  life.  True,  when  men  pretend  to  the  end,  and  not 
use  the  means. 

"  My  wife  joined  with  me  in  a  private  day  of  fasting,  and  drew  several 
signs  and  marks  by  my  help  and  assistance,  for  her  assurance  to  a  better 
life." 

This  was  an  era  of  religious  diaries,  particularly  among 
the  non-conformists  ;  but  they  were,  as  we  see,  used  by- 
others.  Of  the  Countess  of  Warwick,  who  died  in  1678,  we 
are  told  that  "  she  kept  a  diary,  and  took  counsel  Avith  two 
persons,  whom  she  called  her  soul's  friends"    She  called 


STATE  OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS 


359 


prayers  hearts-ease,  for  such  she  found  them.  "  Her  own 
lord,  knowing  her  hours  of  prayers,  once  conveyed  a  godly 
minister  into  a  secret  place  within  hearing,  who,  being  a  man 
very  able  to  judge,  much  admired  her  humble  fervency ;  for 
in  praying  she  prayed  aloud ;  but  when  she  did  not  with  an 
audible  voice,  her  sighs  and  groans  might  be  heard  at  a  good 
distance  from  the  closet."  We  are  not  surprised  to  discover 
this  practice  of  religious  diaries  among  the  more  puritanic 
sort:  what  they  were  we  may  gather  from  this  description 
of  one.  Mr.  John  Janeway  "  kept  a  diary,  in  which  he 
wrote  down  every  evening  what  the  frame  of  his  spirit  had 
been  all  that  day  ;  he  took  notice  what  incomes  he  had,  what 
profit  he  received  in  his  spiritual  traffic :  what  returns  came 
from  that  far  country  ;  what  answers  of  prayer,  what  dead- 
ness  and  flatness  of  spirit,"  &c.  And  so  we  find  of  Mr. 
John  Carter,  that  "  He  kept  a  day-book  and  cast  up  his 
accounts  with  God  every  day."  *  To  such  worldly  notions 
had  they  humiliated  the  spirit  of  religion  ;  and  this  style, 
and  this  mode  of  religion,  has  long  been  continued  among  us 
even  among  men  of  superior  acquisitions :  as  witness  the 
"  Spiritual  Diary  and  Soliloquies "  of  a  learned  physician 
within  our  own  times,  Dr.  Rutty,  which  is  a  great  curiosity 
of  the  kind. 

Such  was  the  domestic  state  of  many  well-meaning  fami- 
lies :  they  were  rejecting  with  the  utmost  abhorrence  every 
resemblance  to  what  they  called  the  idolatry  of  Rome,  while, 
in  fact,  the  gloom  of  the  monastic  cell  was  settling  over  the 
houses  of  these  melancholy  puritans.  Private  fasts  were 
more  than  ever  practised;  and  a  lady,  said  to  be  eminent  for 
her  genius  and  learning,  who  outlived  this  era,  declared  that 
she  had  nearly  lost  her  life  through  a  prevalent  notion  that 
no  fat  person  could  get  to  heaven;  and  thus  spoiled  and 
wasted  her  body  through  excessive  fastings.  A  quaker,  to 
prove  the  text  that  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but 

*  The  Lives  of  sundry  eminent  Persons  in  this  later  Age;  by  Samuel 
Clarke.    Folio,  1683.    A  rare  volume,  with  curious  portraits. 


3G0        VIEW  OF  A  PARTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE 


by  the  word  of  God,"  persisted  in  refusing  his  meals.  The 
literal  text  proved  for  him  a  dead  letter,  and  this  practical 
commentator  died  by  a  metaphor.  This  quaker,  however, 
was  not  the  only  victim  to  the  letter  of  the  text ;  for  the 
famous  Origen,  by  interpreting  in  too  literal  a  way  the  12th 
verse  of  the  19th  of  St.  Matthew,  winch  alludes  to  those 
persons  who  become  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
with  his  own  hands  armed  himself  against  himself,  as  is 
sufficiently  known.  "  Retournons  a  nos  moutons !  "  The 
parliament  afterwards  had  both  periodical  and  occasional 
fasts  ;  and  Charles  the  First  opposed  "  the  hypocritical  fast 
of  every  Wednesday  in  the  month,  by  appointing  one  for  the 
second  Friday  ; "  the  two  unhappy  parties,  who  were  hun- 
gering and  thirsting  for  each  other's  blood,  were  fasting  in 
spite  one  against  the  other ! 

Without  inquiring  into  the  causes,  even  if  wre  thought  that 
we  could  ascertain  them,  of  that  frightful  dissolution  of 
religion  which  so  long  prevailed  in  our  country,  and  of  which 
the  very  corruption  it  has  left  behind  still  breeds  in  monstrous 
shapes,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  observe  that  the  destruction  of 
the  monarchy  and  the  ecclesiastical  order  was  a  moral  earth- 
quake, overturning  all  minds,  and  opening  all  changes.  A 
theological  logomachy  was  substituted  by  the  sullen  and 
proud  ascetics  who  ascended  into  power.  These,  without 
wearying  themselves,  wearied  all  others,  and  triumphed  over 
each  other  by  their  mutual  obscurity.  The  two  great  giants 
in  this  theological  war  were  the  famous  Richard  Baxter  and 
Dr.  Owen.  They  both  wrote  a  library  of  books ;  but  the 
endless  controversy  between  them  was  the  extraordinary  and 
incomprehensible  subject,  wiiether  the  death  of  Christ  was 
solutio  ejusdem,  or  only  tanfundem  ;  that  is,  whether  it  was  a 
payment  of  the  very  thing,  which  by  law  we  ought  to  have 
paid,  or  of  something  held  by  God  to  be  equivalent.  Such 
was  the  point  on  which  this  debate  between  Owen  and 
Baxter  lasted  without  end. 

Yet  these  metaphysical  absurdities  were  harmless,  com 

•  V 


STATE  OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS. 


301 


pared  to  what  was  passing  among  the  more  hot  fanatics,  who 
were  for  acting  the  wild  fancies  which  their  melancholy 
brains  engendered ;  men,  who  from  the  places  into  which 
they  had  thrust  themselves,  might  now  be  called  u  the  higher 
orders  of  society!"  These  two  parties  alike  sent  forth  an 
evil  spirit  to  walk  among  the  multitude.  Every  one  would 
become  his  own  law-maker,  and  even  his  own  prophet ;  the 
meanest  aspired  to  give  his  name  to  his  sect.  All  things 
were  to  be  put  in  motion  according  to  the  St.  Vitus's  dance 
of  the  last  new  saint.  "  Away  with  the  Law !  which  cuts 
off  a  man's  legs  and  then  bids  him  walk ! "  cried  one  from 
his  pulpit.  "  Let  believers  sin  as  fast  as  they  will,  they  have 
a  fountain  open  to  wash  them,"  declared  another  teacher. 
We  had  the  Brownists,  from  Robert  Brown,  the  Vaneists, 
from  Sir  Harry  Vane,  then  we  sink  down  to  Mr.  Traske, 
Mr.  Wilkinson,  Mr.  Robinson,  and  H.  N.,  or  Henry 
Nicholas,  of  the  Family  of  Love,  besides  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
and  the  Grindletonian  family,  who  preferred  "  motions  to 
motives,"  and  conveniently  assumed  that  "  their  spirit  is  not 
to  be  tried  by  the  Scripture,  but  the  Scripture  by  their 
spirit."  Edwards,  the  author  of  "  Gangrcena,"  the  adversary 
of  Milton,  whose  work  may  still  be  preserved  for  its  curio- 
sity, though  immortalized  by  the  scourge  of  genius,  has  fur- 
nished a  list  of  about  two  hundred  of  such  sects  in  these 
times.  A  divine  of  the  church  of  England  observed  to  a 
great  sectary,  "  You  talk  of  the  idolatry  of  Rome ;  but 
each  of  you,  whenever  you  have  made  and  set  up  a  calf,  will 
dance  about  it." 

This  confusion  of  religions,  if,  indeed,  these  pretended 
modes  of  faith  could  be  classed  among  religions,  disturbed 
the  consciences  of  good  men,  who  read  themselves  in  and  out 
of  their  vacillating  creed.  It  made,  at  last,  even  one  of  the 
puritans  themselves,  who  had  formerly  complained  that  they 
had  not  enjoyed  sufficient  freedom  under  the  bishops,  cry  out 
against  "  this  cursed  intolerable  toleration."  And  the  fact  is, 
that  when  the  presbyterians  had  fixed  themselves  into  the 


3G2 


VIEW  OF  A  PAKTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE 


government,  they  published  several  treatises  against  tolera- 
tion !  The  parallel  between  these  wild  notions  of  reform,  and 
those  of  another  character,  run  closely  together.  About  this 
time,  well-meaning  persons,  who  were  neither  enthusiasts 
from  the  ambition  of  founding  sects,  nor  of  covering  their 
immorality  by  their  impiety,  were  infected  with  the  religiosa 
insania.  One  case  may  stand  for  many.  A  Mr.  Greswold, 
a  gentleman  of  Warwickshire,  whom  a  Brownist  had  by  de- 
grees enticed  from  his  parish  church,  was  afterwards  per- 
suaded to  return  to  it — but  he  returned  with  a  troubled  mind, 
and  lost  in  the  prevalent  theological  contests.  A  horror  of 
his  future  existence  shut  him  out,  as  it  were,  from  his  present 
one  :  retiring  into  his  own  house,  with  his  children,  he  ceased 
to  communicate  with  the  living  world.  He  had  his  food  put 
in  at  the  window  ;  and  when  his  children  lay  sick,  he  admit- 
ted no  one  for  their  relief.  His  house,  at  length,  was  forced 
open  ;  and  they  found  two  children  dead,  and  the  father  con- 
fined to  his  bed.  He  had  mangled  his  Bible,  and  cut  out  the 
titles,  contents,  and  every  thing  but  the  very  text  itself ;  for  it 
seems  that  he  thought  that  every  thing  human  was  sinful,  and 
he  conceived  that  the  titles  of  the  books  and  the  contents  of 
the  chapters,  were  to  be  cut  out  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  as 
having  been  composed  by  men.* 

More  terrible  it  was  when  the  insanity,  which  had  hitherto 
been  more  confined  to  the  better  classes,  burst  forth  among 
the  common  people.  Were  we  to  dwell  minutely  on  this 
period,  we  should  start  from  the  picture  with  horror:  we 
might,  perhaps,  console  ourselves  with  a  disbelief  of  its  truth; 
but  the  drug,  though  bitter  in  the  mouth,  we  must  sometimes 
digest.  To  observe  the  extent  to  which  the  populace  can 
proceed,  disfranchised  of  law  and  religion,  will  always  leave 
a  memorable  recollection. 

What  occurred  in  the  French  revolution  had  happened 
here — an  age  of  impiety !  Society  itself  seemed  dissolved, 
for  every  tie  of  private  affection  and  of  public  duty  was  un- 

*  The  Hypocrite  discovered  and  cured,  by  Sam.  Torshall,  4to.  6144. 


STATE  OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS. 


3G3 


loosened.  Even  nature  was  strangely  violated  !  From  the 
first  opposition  to  the  decorous  ceremonies  of  the  national 
church,  by  the  simple  puritans,  the  next  stage  was  that  of 
ridicule,  and  the  last  of  obloquy.  They  began  by  calling  the 
surplice  a  linen  rag  on  the  back ;  baptism  a  Christ's  cross  on 
a  baby's  face  ;  and  the  organ  was  likened  to  the  bellow,  the 
grunt,  and  the  barking  of  the  respective  animals.  They  ac- 
tually baptized  horses  in  churches  at  the  fonts  ;  and  the  jest 
of  that  day  was,  that  the  Reformation  was  now  a  thorough 
one  in  England,  since  our  horses  went  to  church.*  St. 
Paul's  cathedral  was  turned  into  a  market,  and  the  aisles, 
the  communion  table,  and  the  altar,  served  for  the  foulest 
purposes.  The  liberty  which  every  one  now  assumed  of  de- 
livering his  own  opinions,  led  to  acts  so  execrable,  that  I  can 
find  no  parallel  for  them  except  in  the  mad  times  of  the 
French  Revolution.  Some  maintained  that  there  existed  no 
distinction  between  moral  good  and  moral  evil ;  and  that 
every  man's  actions  were  prompted  by  the  Creator.  Prosti- 
tution was  professed  as  a  religious  act;  a  glazier  was  de- 
clared to  be  a  prophet,  and  the  woman  he  cohabited  with  was 
said  to  be  ready  to  lie  in  of  the  Messiah.  A  man  married 
his  father's  wife.  Murders  of  the  most  extraordinary  nature 
were  occurring ;  one  woman  crucified  her  mother  ;  another, 
in  imitation  of  Abraham,  sacrificed  her  child ;  we  hear,  too, 
of  parricides.  Amidst  the  slaughters  of  civil  wars,  spoil 
and  blood  had  accustomed  the  people  to  contemplate  the 
most  horrible  scenes.  One  madman  of  the  many,  we  find 
drinking  a  health  on  his  knees,  in  the  midst  of  a  town,  "  to 

*  There  is  a  pamphlet  which  records  a  strange  fact.  "  News  from 
Powles :  or  the  new  Reformation  of  the  Army,  with  a  true  Relation  of  a  Colt 
that  was  foaled  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of  St.  Paul,  in  London,  and  how 
it  was  publiquely  baptized,  and  the  name  (because  a  bald  Colt)  was  called 
Baal-Rex!  1649."  The  water  they  sprinkled  from  the  soldier's  helmet  on 
this  occasion  is  described.  The  same  occurred  elsewhere.  See  Foulis's 
History  of  the  Plots,  &c.  of  our  pretended  Saints.  These  men,  who  bap- 
tized horses  and  pigs  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity,  sang  psalms  when  they 
marched.  One  cannot  easily  comprehend  the  nature  of  fanaticism,  except 
when  we  learn  that  they  refused  to  pay  rents ! 


364 


VIEW  OF  A  PARTICULAR  PERIOD  OF  THE 


the  devil  !  that  it  might  be  said  that  his  family  should  not 
be  extinct  without  doing  some  infamous  act."  A  Scotchman, 
one  Alexander  Agnew,  commonly  called  "  Jock  of  broad 
Scotland,"  whom  one  cannot  call  an  atheist,  for  he  does  not 
seem  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  Creator,  nor  a  future  state, 
had  a  shrewdness  of  local  humour  in  his  strange  notions. 
Omitting  some  offensive  things,  others  as  strange  may  exhibit 
the  state  to  which  the  reaction  of  an  hypocritical  system  of 
religion  had  driven  the  common  people.  Jock  of  broad 
Scotland  said  he  was  nothing  in  God's  common,  for  God  had 
given  him  nothing ;  he  was  no  more  obliged  to  God  than  to 
the  devil,  for  God  was  very  greedy.  Neither  God  nor  the 
devil  gave  the  fruits  of  the  ground  ;  the  wives  of  the  country 
gave  him  his  meat.  When  asked  wherein  he  believed,  he 
answered,  "  He  believed  in  white  meal,  water,  and  salt. 
Christ  was  not  God,  for  he  came  into  the  world  after  it  was 
made,  and  died  as  other  men."  He  declared  that  "  he  did 
not  know  whether  God  or  the  devil  had  the  greatest  power, 
but  he  thought  the  devil  was  the  greatest.  "When  I  die,  let 
God  and  the  devil  strive  for  my  soul,  and  let  him  that  is 
strongest  take  it."  He  no  doubt  had  been  taught  by  the 
presbytery  to  mock  religious  rites  ;  and  when  desired  to  give 
God  thanks  for  his  meat,  he  said,  "  Take  a  sackful  of  prayers 
to  the  mill  and  grind  them,  and  take  your  breakfast  of  them." 
To  others,  he  said,  "I  will  give  you  a  two-pence,  to  pray 
until  a  boll  of  meal,  and  one  stone  of  butter,  fall  from  heaven 
through  the  house  rigging  (roof)  to  you."  When  bread  and 
cheese  were  laid  on  the  ground  by  him,  he  said,  "  If  I  leave 
this,  I  will  long  cry  to  God  before  he  give  it  me  again."  To 
others  he  said,  "  Take  a  bannock,  and  break  it  in  two,  and 
lay  down  one  half  thereof,  and  you  will  long  pray  to  God 
before  he  will  put  the  other  half  to  it  again  ! "  He  seems  to 
have  been  an  anti-trinitarian.  He  said  he  received  every 
thing  from  nature,  which  had  ever  reigned  and  ever  would. 
He  would  not  conform  to  any  religious  system,  nor  name  the 
three  Persons, — "  At  all  these  things  I  have  long  shaken  my 


STATE  OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS. 


365 


cap  "  he  said.  Jock  of  broad  Scotland  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  those  who  imagine  that  God  should  have  furnished 
them  with  bannocks  ready  baked. 

The  extravagant  fervour  then  working  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  is  marked  by  the  story  told  by  Clement  Walker  of 
the  soldier  who  entered  a  church  with  a  lantern  and  a  candle 
burning  in  it,  and  in  the  other  hand  four  candles  not  lighted. 
He  said  he  came  to  deliver  his  message  from  God,  and  show  it 
by  these  types  of  candles.  Driven  into  the  churchyard,  and 
the  wind  blowing  strong,  he  could  not  kindle  his  candles,  and 
the  new  prophet  was  awkwardly  compelled  to  conclude  his 
five  denouncements,  abolishing  the  Sabbath,  tithes,  ministers, 
magistrates,  and,  at  last,  the  Bible  itself,  without  putting  out 
each  candle,  as  he  could  not  kindle  them  ;  observing,  how- 
ever, each  time — "  And  here  I  should  put  out  the  first  light, 
but  the  wind  is  so  high  that  I  cannot  kindle  it." 

A  perfect  scene  of  the  effects  which  the  state  of  irreligious 
society  produced  among  the  lower  orders,  I  am  enabled  to 
give  from  the  manuscript  life  of  John  Shaw,  vicar  of  Rother- 
ham,  with  a  little  tediousness,  but  with  infinite  naivete,  what 
happened  to  himself.  This  honest  divine  was  puritanically 
inclined,  but  there  can  be  no  exaggeration  in  these  unvar- 
nished facts.  He  tells  a  remarkable  story  of  the  state  of 
religious  knowledge  in  Lancashire,  at  a  place  called  Cartmel : 
some  of  the  people  appeared  desirous  of  religious  instruction, 
declaring  that  they  were  without  any  minister,  and  had  en- 
tirely neglected  every  religious  rite,  and  therefore  pressed 
him  to  quit  his  situation  at  Lymm  for  a  short  period.  He 
may  now  tell  his  own  story. 

"  I  found  a  very  large  spacious  church,  scarce  any  seats  in  it ;  a  people 
very  ignorant,  and  yet  willing  to  learn ;  so  as  I  had  frequently  some  thou- 
sands of  hearers.  I  catechized  in  season  and  out  of  season.  The  churches 
were  so  thronged  at  nine  in  the  morning,  that  I  had  much  ado  to  get  to  the 
pulpit.  One  day,  an  old  man  about  sixty,  sensible  enough  in  other  things, 
and  living  in  the  parish  of  Cartmel,  coming  to  me  on  some  business,  I  told 
him  that  he  belonged  to  my  care  and  charge,  and  I  desired  to  be  informed 
\n  his  knowledge  of  religion.    I  asked  him  how  many  Gods  there  were  ? 


3GG        STATE  OF  RELIGION  IN  OUR  CIVIL  WARS. 


He  said  he  knew  not.  I  informing  him,  asked  again  how  he  thought  to  be 
saved?  He  answered  he  could  not  tell.  Yet  thought  that  was  a  harder 
question  than  the  other.  I  told  him  that  the  way  to  salvation  was  by- 
Jesus  Christ,  God-man,  who  as  he  was  man  shed  his  blood  for  us  on  the 
cross,  &c.  Oh  sir,  said  he,  I  think  I  heard  of  that  man  you  speak  of  once 
in  a  play  at  Kendall,  called  Corpus-Christ's  play,  where  there  was  a  man 
on  a  tree  and  blood  run  down,  &c.  And  afterwards  he  professed  he  could 
not  remember  that  he  ever  heard  of  salvation  by  Jesus,  but  in  that  play." 

The  scenes  passing  in  the  metropolis,  as  well  as  in  the 
country,  are  opened  to  us  in  one  of  the  chronicling  poems  of 
George  Withers.  Our  sensible  rhymer  wrote  in  November, 
1652,  "a  Darke  Lanthorne"  on  the  present  subject. 

After  noticing  that  God,  to  mortify  us,  had  sent  preachers 
from  the  "  shop-board  and  the  plough," 

 "  Such  as  we  seem  justly  to  contemn, 

As  making  truths  abhorred,  which  come  from  them;" 

he  seems,  however,  inclined  to  think,  that  these  self-taught 
"  Teachers  and  Prophets  "  in  their  darkness  might  hold  a 
certain  light  within  them  : 

 "  Children,  fools, 

Women,  and  madmen,  we  do  often  meet 
Preaching,  and  threatening  judgments  in  the  street, 
Yea  by  strange  actions,  postures,  tones,  and  cries, 
Themselves  they  offer  to  our  ears  and  eyes 

As  signs  unto  this  nation.  

They  act  as  men  in  ecstacies  have  done  

Striving  their  cloudy  visions  to  declare, 

Till  they  have  lost  the  notions  which  they  had, 

And  want  but  few  degrees  of  being  mad." 

Such  is  the  picture  of  the  folly  and  of  the  wickedness, 
which  after  having  been  preceded  by  the  piety  of  a  religious 
age,  were  succeeded  by  a  dominion  of  hypocritical  sanctity, 
and  then  closed  in  all  the  horrors  of  immorality  and  impiety. 
The  parliament  at  length  issued  one  of  their  ordinances  for 
"punishing  blasphemous  and  execrable  opinions,"  and  this 
was  enforced  with  greater  power  than  the  slighted  proclama- 
tions of  James  and  Charles ;  but  the  curious  wording  is  a 
comment  on  our  present  subject.    The  preamble  notices  that 


BUCKINGHAM'S  POLITICAL  COQUETRY,  ETC.  3G7 


u  men  and  women  had  lately  discovered  monstrous  opinions, 
even  such  as  tended  to  the  dissolution  of  human  society,  and 
have  abused,  and  turned  into  lice?itiousness,  the  liberty  given  in 
matters  of  religion"  It  punishes  any  person  not  distempered 
in  his  brains,  who  shall  maintain  any  mere  creature  to  be 
God  ;  or  that  all  acts  of  unrighteousness  are  not  forbidden  in 
the  Scriptures  ;  or  that  God  approves  of  them  ;  or  that  there 
is  no  real  difference  between  moral  good  and  evil,"  &c. 

To  this  disordered  state  was  the  public  mind  reduced,  for 
this  proclamation  was  only  describing  what  was  passing 
among  the  people  !  The  view  of  this  subject  embraces  more 
than  one  point,  which  I  leave  for  the  meditation  of  the  poli- 
tician, as  well  as  of  the  religionist. 


BUCKINGHAM'S  POLITICAL  COQUETRY  WITH  THE 
PURITANS. 

Buckingham,  observes  Hume,  "  in  order  to  fortify  him- 
self against  the  resentment  of  James" — on  the  conduct  of 
the  duke  in  the  Spanish  match,  when  James  was  latterly 
hearing  every  day  Buckingham  against  Bristol,  and  Bristol 
against  Buckingham — "  had  affected  popularity,  and  entered 
into  the  cabals  of  the  puritans ;  but  afterwards,  being  secure 
of  the  confidence  of  Charles,  he  had  since  abandoned  this 
party ;  and  on  that  account  was  the  more  exposed  to  their 
hatred  and  resentment." 

The  political  coquetry  of  a  minister  coalescing  with  an 
opposition  party,  when  he  was  on  the  point  of  being  dis- 
graced, would  doubtless  open  an  involved  scene  of  intrigue  ; 
and  what  one  exacted,  and  the  other  was  content  to  yield, 
towards  the  mutual  accommodation,  might  add  one  more  ex- 
ample to  the  large  chapter  of  political  infirmity.  Both 
workmen  attempting  to  convert  each  other  into  tools,  by  first 
trying  their  respective  malleability  on  the  anvil,  are  liable  to 


3G8 


BUCKINGHAM'S  POLITICAL  COQUETRY 


be  disconcerted  by  even  a  slight  accident,  whenever  that 
proves,  to  perfect  conviction,  how  little  they  can  depend  on 
each  other,  and  that  each  party  comes  to  cheat,  and  not  to  be 
cheated  ! 

This  piece  of  secret  history  is  in  part  recoverable  from 
good  authority.  The  two  great  actors  were  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  and  Dr.  Preston,  the  master  of  Emmanuel 
College,  and  the  head  of  the  puritan  party. 

Dr.  Preston  was  an  eminent  character,  who  from  his 
youth  was  not  without  ambition.  His  scholastic  learning,  the 
subtilty  of  his  genius,  and  his  more  elegant  accomplishments, 
had  attracted  the  notice  of  James,  at  whose  table  he  was 
perhaps  more  than  once  honoured  as  a  guest ;  a  suspicion  of 
his  puritanic  principles  was  perhaps  the  only  obstacle  to  his 
court  preferment;  yet  Preston  unquestionably  designed  to 
play  a  political  part.  He  retained  the  favour  of  James  by 
the  king's  hope  of  withdrawing  the  doctor  from  the  op- 
position party,  and  commanded  the  favour  of  Buckingham 
by  the  fears  of  that  minister  ;  when,  to  employ  the  quaint 
style  of  Placket,  the  duke  foresaw  that  "  he  might  come  to  be 
tried  in  the  furnace  of  the  next  sessions  of  parliament,  and 
he  had  need  to  make  the  refiners  his  friends  : "  most  of  these 
"refiners"  were  the  puritanic  or  opposition  party.  Ap- 
pointed one  of  the  chaplains  of  Prince  Charles,  Dr.  Preston 
had  the  advantage  of  being  in  frequent  attendance  ;  and  as 
Hacket  tells  us,  "  this  politic  man  felt  the  pulse  of  the  court, 
and  wanted  not  the  intelligence  of  all  dark  mysteries  through 
the  Scotch  in  his  highness's  bed-chamber."  A  close  com- 
munication took  place  between  the  duke  and  Preston,  who, 
as  Hacket  describes,  was  "  a  good  crow  to  smell  carrion." 
He  obtained  an  easy  admission  to  the  duke's  closet  at  least 
thrice  a  week,  and  their  notable  conferences  Buckingham 
appears  to  have  communicated  to  his  confidential  friends. 
Preston,  intent  on  carrying  all  his  points,  skilfully  com- 
menced with  the  smaller  ones.  He  winded  the  duke  circuit- 
ously, — he  worked   at  him  subterraneously.     This  wary 


WITH  THE  PURITANS. 


3C9 


politician  was  too  sagacious  to  propose  what  he  had  at  heart — 
the  extirpation  of  the  hierarchy  !  The  thunder  of  James's 
voice,  "  No  bishop!  no  king!  "  in  the  conference  at  Hampton- 
court,  still  echoed  in  the  ear  of  the  puritan.  He  assured  the 
duke  that  the  love  of  the  people  was  his  only  anchor,  which 
could  only  be  secured  by  the  most  popular  measures.  A 
new  sort  of  reformation  was  easy  to  execute.  Cathedrals 
and  collegiate  churches  maintained  by  vast  wealth,  and  the 
lands  of  the  chapter,  only  fed  "fat,  lazy,  and  unprofitable 
drones."  The  dissolution  of  the  foundations  of  deans  and 
chapters  would  open  an  ample  source  to  pay  the  king's  debts, 
and  scatter  the  streams  of  patronage.  "You  would  then 
become  the  darling  of  the  commonwealth ; "  I  give  the 
words  as  I  find  them  in  Hacket.  "  If  a  crumb  stick  in  the 
throat  of  any  considerable  man  that  attempts  an  opposition, 
it  will  be  easy  to  wash  it  down  with  manors,  woods,  royalties, 
tythes,  &c."  It  would  be  furnishing  the  wants  of  a  number 
of  gentlemen ;  and  he  quoted  a  Greek  proverb,  "  that  when 
a  great  oak  falls,  every  neighbour  may  scuffle  for  a  fagot." 

Dr.  Preston  was  willing  to  perform  the  part  which  Knox 
had  acted  in  Scotland !  He  might  have  been  certain  of  a 
party  to  maintain  this  national  violation  of  property  ;  for  he 
who  calls  out  "  Plunder  !  "  will  ever  find  a  gang.  These  acts 
of  national  injustice,  so  much  desired  by  revolutionists,  are 
never  beneficial  to  the  people ;  they  never  partake  of  the 
spoliation,  and  the  whole  terminates  in  the  gratification  of 
private  rapacity. 

It  was  not,  however,  easy  to  obtain  such  perpetual  access 
to  the  minister,  and  at  the  same  time  escape  from  the  watch- 
ful. Archbishop  Williams,  the  lord  keeper,  got  sufficient 
hints  from  the  king ;  and  in  a  tedious  conference  with  the 
duke,  he  wished  to  convince  him  that  Preston  had  only  offered 
him  "  flitten  milk,  out  of  winch  he  should  churn  nothing !  " 
The  duke  was,  however,  smitten  by  the  new  project,  and 
made  a  remarkable  answer  :  "  You  lose  yourself  in  general- 
ities :  make  it  out  to  me  in  particular,  if  you  can,  that  the 

VOL.  IV.  24 


370       BUCKINGHAM'S  POLITICAL  COQUETRY,  ETC. 

motion  you  pick  at  will  find  repulse,  and  be  baffled  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  I  know  not  how  you  bishops  may 
struggle,  but  I  am  much  deluded  if  a  great  part  of  the 
knights  and  burgesses  would  not  be  glad  to  see  this  altera- 
tion." We  are  told  on  this,  that  Archbishop  Williams  took 
out  a  list  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  con- 
vinced the  minister  that  an  overwhelming  majority  would 
oppose  this  projected  revolution,  and  that  in  consequence  the 
duke  gave  it  up. 

But  this  anterior  decision  of  the  duke  may  be  doubtful, 
since  Preston  still  retained  the  high  favour  of  the  minister, 
after  the  death  of  James.  When  James  died  at  Theobalds, 
where  Dr.  Preston  happened  to  be  in  attendance,  he  had  the 
honour  of  returning  to  town  in  the  new  king's  coach  with  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham.  The  doctor's  servile  adulation  of  the 
minister  gave  even  great  offence  to  the  over-zealous  puritans. 
That  he  was  at  length  discarded  is  certain  ;  but  this  was 
owing  not  to  any  deficient  subserviency  on  the  side  of  our 
politician,  but  to  one  of  those  unlucky  circumstances  which 
have  often  put  an  end  to  temporary  political  connections,  by 
enabling  one  party  to  discover  what  the  other  thinks  of  him. 

I  draw  this  curious  fact  from  a  manuscript  narrative  in  the 
handwriting  of  the  learned  William  Wotton.  When  the 
puritanic  party  foolishly  became  jealous  of  the  man  who 
seemed  to  be  working  at  root  and  branch  for  their  purposes, 
they  addressed  a  letter  to  Preston,  remonstrating  with  him 
for  his  servile  attachment  to  the  minister  ;  on  which  he  con- 
fidently returned  an  answer,  assuring  them  that  he  was  as 
fully  convinced  of  the  vileness  and  profligacy  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham's  character  as  any  man  could  be,  but  that  there 
was  no  way  to  come  at  him  but  by  the  lowest  flattery,  and 
that  it  was  necessary  for  the  glory  of  God  that  such  instru- 
ments should  be  made  use  of  as  could  be  had ;  and  for  that 
reason,  and  that  alone,  he  showed  that  respect  to  the  reigning 
favourite,  and  not  for  any  real  honour  that  he  had  for  him. 
This  letter  proved  fatal ;  some  officious  hand  conveyed  it  to 


COKE  AGAINST  THE  HIGH  SHERIFF'S  OATH.  371 


the  duke !  When  Preston  came,  as  usual,  the  duke  took  his 
opportunity  of  asking  him  what  he  had  ever  done  to  disoblige 
him,  that  he  should  describe  him  in  such  black  characters  to 
his  own  party  ?  Preston,  in  amazement,  denied  the  fact,  and 
poured  forth  professions  of  honour  and  gratitude.  The  duke 
showed  him  his  own  letter.  Dr.  Preston  instantaneously  felt 
a  political  apoplexy  ;  the  labours  of  some  years  were  lost  in 
a  single  morning.  The  baffled  politician  was  turned  out  of 
Wallingford  House,  never  more  to  see  the  enraged  minister  ! 
And  from  that  moment  Buckingham  wholly  abandoned  the 
puritans,  and  cultivated  the  friendship  of  Laud.  This  hap- 
pened soon  after  James  the  First's  death.  Wotton  adds, 
"  This  story  I  heard  from  one  who  was  extremely  well 
versed  in  the  secret  history  of  the  time."  * 


SIR  EDWARD  COKE'S  EXCEPTIONS  AGAINST  THE 
HIGH  SHERIFF'S  OATH. 

A  curious  fact  will  show  the  revolutionary  nature  of 
human  events,  and  the  necessity  of  correcting  our  ancient 
statutes,  which  so  frequently  hold  out  punishments  and  penal- 
ties for  objects  which  have  long  ceased  to  be  criminal ;  as 
well  as  for  persons  against  whom  it  would  be  barbarous  to 
allow  some  unrepealed  statute  to  operate. 

When  a  political  stratagem  was  practised  by  Charles  the 
First  to  keep  certain  members  out  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
by  pricking  them  down  as  sheriffs  in  their  different  counties, 
among  them  was  the  celebrated  Sir  Edward  Coke,  whom  the 
government  had  made  High  Sheriff  for  Bucks.  It  was  ne- 
cessary, perhaps,  to  be  a  learned  and  practised  lawyer  to 

*  Wotton  delivered  this  memorandum  to  the  literary  antiquary,  Thomas 
Baker;  and  Kennet  transcribed  it  in  his  Manuscript  Collections.  Lans- 
iowne  MSS.  No.  932-88.  The  Life  of  Dr.  Preston,  in  Chalmers's  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary,  may  be  consulted  with  advantage. 


372        SECKET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


discover  the  means  he  took,  in  the  height  of  his  resentment, 
to  elude  the  insult.  This  great  lawyer,  who  himself,  perhaps, 
had  often  administered  the  oath  to  the  sheriffs,  which  had, 
century  after  century,  been  usual  for  them  to  take,  to  the 
surprise  of  all  persons  drew  up  Exceptions  against  the 
Sheriff's  Oath,  declaring  that  no  one  could  take  it.  Coke 
sent  his  Exceptions  to  the  attorney-general,  who,  by  an 
immediate  order  in  council,  submitted  them  to  "  all  the  judges 
of  England."  Our  legal  luminary  had  condescended  only  to 
some  ingenious  cavilling  in  three  of  his  exceptions ;  but  the 
fourth  was  of  a  nature  which  could  not  be  overcome.  All 
the  judges  of  England  assented,  and  declared,  that  there  was 
one  part  of  this  ancient  oath  which  was  perfectly  irreligious, 
and  must  ever  hereafter  be  left  out !  This  article  was,  "  That 
you  shall  do  all  your  pain  and  diligence  to  destroy  and  make 
to  cease  all  manner  of  heresies,  commonly  called  Lollaries, 
within  your  bailiwick,  &c."  *  The  Lollards  were  the  most 
ancient  of  protestants,  and  had  practised  Luther's  sentiments  ; 
it  was,  in  fact,  condemning  the  established  religion  of  the 
country  !  An  order  was  issued  from  Hampton-Court,  for  the 
abrogation  of  this  part  of  the  oath  ;  and  at  present  all  high 
sheriffs  owe  this  obligation  to  the  resentment  of  Sir  Edward 
Coke,  for  having  been  pricked  down  as  Sheriff  of  Bucks,  to 
be  kept  out  of  Parliament !  The  merit  of  having  the  oath 
changed,  instanter,  he  was  allowed ;  but  he  was  not  excused 
taking  it,  after  it  was  accommodated  to  the  conscientious  and 
lynx-eyed  detection  of  our  enraged  lawyer. 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST  AND 
HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 

The  reign  of  Charles  the  First,  succeeded  by  the  Com- 
monwealth of  England,  forms  a  period  unparalleled  by  any 
*  Rushworth's  Historical  Collections,  vol.  i.  p.  199. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


373 


preceding  one  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  It  was  for  the 
English  nation  the  great  result  of  all  former  attempts  to 
ascertain  and  to  secure  the  just  freedom  of  the  subject.  The 
prerogative  of  the  sovereign,  and  the  rights  of  the  people 
were  often  imagined  to  be  mutual  encroachments  ;  and  were 
long  involved  in  contradiction,  in  an  age  of  unsettled  opinions 
and  disputed  principles.  At  length  the  conflicting  parties  of 
monarchy  and  democracy,  in  the  weakness  of  their  passions, 
discovered  how  much  each  required  the  other  for  its  protector. 
This  age  offers  the  finest  speculations  in  human  nature ;  it 
opens  a  protracted  scene  of  glory  and  of  infamy ;  all  that 
elevates  and  all  that  humiliates  our  kind,  wrestling  together, 
and  expiring  in  a  career  of  glorious  deeds,  of  revolting 
crimes,  and  even  of  ludicrous  infirmities  ! 

The  French  Revolution  is  the  commentary  of  the  English  ; 
and  a  commentary  at  times  more  important  than  the  text 
which  it  elucidates.  It  has  thrown  a  freshness  over  the 
antiquity  of  our  own  history;  and,  on  returning  to  it,  we 
seem  to  possess  the  feelings,  and  to  be  agitated  by  the  in- 
terests, of  contemporaries.  The  circumstances  and  the  per- 
sons which  so  many  imagine  had  passed  away,  have  been 
reproduced  under  our  own  eyes.  In  other  histories  we 
accept  the  knowledge  of  the  characters  and  the  incidents  on 
the  evidence  of  the  historian  ;  but  here  we  may  take  them 
from  our  own  conviction,  since  to  extinct  names  and  to  past 
events,  we  can  apply  the  reality  which  we  ourselves  have 
witnessed. 

Charles  the  First  had  scarcely  ascended  the  throne  ere  he 
discovered,  that  in  his  new  parliament  he  was  married  to  a 
sullen  bride :  the  youthful  monarch,  with  the  impatience  of  a 
lover,  warm  with  hope  and  glory,  was  ungraciously  repulsed 
even  in  the  first  favours  !  The  prediction  of  his  father  re- 
mained, like  the  handwriting  on  the  wall ;  but,  seated  on  the 
throne,  Hope  was  more  congenial  to  youth  than  Prophecy. 

As  soon  as  Charles  the  First  could  assemble  a  parliament, 
De  addressed  them  with  an  earnestness,  in  which  the  simplic- 


374        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


ity  of  words  and  thoughts  strongly  contrasted  with  the  orato- 
rical harangues  of  the  late  monarch.  It  cannot  be  alleged 
against  Charles  the  First,  that  he  preceded  the  parliament  in 
the  war  of  words.  He  courted  their  affections  ;  and  even  in 
this  manner  of  reception,  amidst  the  dignity  of  the  regal 
office,  studiously  showed  his  exterior  respect  by  the  marked 
solemnity  of  their  first  meeting.  As  yet  uncrowned,  on  the 
day  on  which  he  first  addressed  the  Lords  and  Commons,  he 
wore  his  crown,  and  vailed  it  at  the  opening,  and  on  the  close 
of  his  speech ;  a  circumstance  to  which  the  parliament  had 
not  been  accustomed.  Another  ceremony  gave  still  greater 
solemnity  to  the  meeting ;  the  king  would  not  enter  into  busi- 
ness till  they  had  united  in  prayer.  He  commanded  the 
doors  to  be  closed,  and  a  bishop  to  perform  the  office.  The 
suddenness  of  this  unexpected  command  disconcerted  the  cath- 
olic lords,  of  whom  the  less  rigid  knelt,  and  the  moderate 
stood:  there  was  one  startled  papist  who  did  nothing  but 
cross  himself !  * 

The  speech  may  be  found  in  Rushworth ;  the  friendly  tone 
must  be  shown  here. 

"  I  hope  that  you  do  remember  that  you  were  pleased  to  employ  me  to 
advise  my  father  to  break  off  the  treaties  (with  Spain).  I  came  into  this 
business  willingly  and  freely,  like  a  young  man,  and  consequently  rashly; 
but  it  was  by  your  interest — your  engagement.  I  pray  you  to  remember, 
that  this  being  my  first  action,  and  begun  by  your  advice  and  entreaty,  what 
a  great  dishonour  it  were  to  you  and  me  that  it  should  fail  for  that  assist- 
ance you  are  able  to  give  me !  " 

This  effusion  excited  no  sympathy  in  the  house.  They 
voted  not  a  seventh  part  of  the  expenditure  necessary  to  pro- 
ceed with  a  war,  into  which,  as  a  popular  measure,  they 
themselves  had  forced  the  king. 

At  Oxford  the  king  again  reminded  them  that  he  was 
engaged  in  a  war  "  from  their  desires  and  advice."  He 
expresses  his  disappointment  at  their  insufficient  grant,  "  far 
short  to  set  forth  the  navy  now  preparing."  The  speech  pre- 
serves the  same  simplicity. 

*  From  manuscript  letters  of  the  times. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


375 


Still  no  echo  of  kindness  responded  in  the  house.  It  was, 
however,  asserted,  in  a  vague  and  quibbling  manner,  that 
"  though  a  former  parliament  did  engage  the  king  in  a  war, 
yet,  (if  things  were  managed  by  a  contrary  design,  and  the 
treasure  misemployed)  this  parliament  is  not  bound  by 
another  parliament : "  and  they  added  a  cruel  mockery,  k'  that 
the  king  should  help  the  cause  of  the  Palatinate  with  his  own 
money  !  " — this  foolish  war,  which  James  and  Charles  had  so 
long  borne  their  reproaches  for  having  avoided  as  hopeless, 
but  which  the  puritanic  party,  as  well  as  others,  had  contin- 
ually urged  as  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  protest- 
ant  cause  in  Europe. 

Still  no  supplies  !  but  protestations  of  duty,  and  petitions 
about  grievances,  which  it  had  been  difficult  to  specify.  In 
their  "  Declaration "  they  style  his  Majesty  "  Our  dear  and 
dread  sovereign,"  and  themselves  "  his  poor  Commons  : "  but 
they  concede  no  point — they  offer  no  aid  !  The  king  was  not 
yet  disposed  to  quarrel,  though  he  had  in  vain  pressed  for 
dispatch  of  business,  lest  the  season  should  be  lost  for  the 
navy ;  again  reminding  them,  that  "  it  was  the  first  request 
that  he  ever  made  unto  them  ! "  On  the  pretence  of  the 
plague  at  Oxford,  Charles  prorogued  parliament,  with  a 
promise  to  reassemble  in  the  winter. 

There  were  a  few  whose  hearts  had  still  a  pulse  to  vibrate 
with  the  distresses  of  a  youthful  monarch,  perplexed  by  a  war 
which  they  themselves  had  raised.  But  others,  of  a  more 
republican  complexion,  rejected  "  Necessity,  as  a  dangerous 
counsellor,  which  would  be  always  furnishing  arguments  for 
supplies.  If  the  king  was  in  danger  and  necessity,  those 
ought  to  answer  for  it  who  have  put  both  king  and  kingdom 
into  this  peril :  and  if  the  state  of  things  would  not  admit  a 
redress  of  grievances,  there  cannot  be  so  much  necessity  for 
money." 

The  first  parliament  abandoned  the  king ! 
Charles  now  had  no  other  means  to  dispatch  the  army  and 
leet,  in  a  bad  season,  but  by  borrowing  money  on  privy  seals  : 


376        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


these  were  letters,  where  the  loan  exacted  was  as  small  as 
the  style  was  humble.  They  specified,  "  that  this  loan  with- 
out inconvenience  to  any,  is  only  intended  for  the  service  of 
the  public.  Such  private  helps  for  public  services,  which 
cannot  be  deferred,"  the  king  premises,  had  been  often  re- 
sorted to  ;  but  this  "  being  the  first  time  that  we  have  required 
any  thing  in  this  kind,  Ave  require  but  that  sum  which  few 
men  would  deny  a  friend."  As  far  as  I  can  discover,  the 
highest  sum  assessed  from  great  personages  was  twenty 
pounds  !  The  king  was  willing  to  suffer  any  mortification, 
even  that  of  a  charitable  solicitation,  rather  than  endure  the 
obdurate  insults  of  parliament !  All  donations  were  received, 
from  ten  pounds  to  five  shillings :  this  was  the  mockery  of  an 
alms-basket  !  Yet  with  contributions  and  savings  so  trivial, 
and  exacted  with  such  a  warm  appeal  to  their  feelings,  was 
the  king  to  send  out  a  fleet  with  ten  thousand  men — to  take 
Cadiz ! 

This  expedition,  like  so  many  similar  attempts  from  the 
days  of  Charles  the  First  to  those  of  the  great  Lord  Chat- 
ham, and  to  our  own — concluded  in  a  nullity  !  Charles, 
disappointed  in  this  predatory  attempt,  in  despair  called  his 
second  parliament — as  he  says,  "  in  the  midst  of  his  necessi- 
ties— and  to  learn  from  them  how  he  was  to  frame  his  course 
and  counsels." 

The  Commons,  as  duteously  as  ever,  profess  that  "No  king 
was  ever  dearer  to  his  people  ;  and  that  they  really  intend  to 
assist  his  majesty  in  such  a  way,  as  may  make  him  safe  at 
home,  and  feared  abroad" — but  it  was  to  be  on  condition, 
that  he  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  accept  "  the  informa- 
tion and  advice  of  parliament  in  discovering  the  causes  of  the 
great  evils,  and  redress  their  grievances."  The  king  accepted 
this  "as  a  satisfactory  answer;"  but  Charles  comprehended 
their  drift — "  You  specially  aim  at  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  ; 
what  he  hath  done  to  change  your  minds  I  wot  not."  The 
style  of  the  king  now  first  betrays  angered  feelings ;  the 
secret  cause  of  the  uncomplying  conduct  of  the  Commons  was 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


377 


hatred  of  the  favourite — but  the  king  saw  that  they  designed 
to  control  the  executive  government,  and  he  could  ascribe 
their  antipathy  to  Buckingham  but  to  the  capriciousness  of 
popular  favour ;  for  not  long  ago  he  had  heard  Buckingham 
hailed  as  "  their  saviour."  In  the  zeal  and  firmness  of  his 
affections,  Charles  always  considered  that  he  himself  was 
aimed  at,  in  the  person  of  his  confidant,  his  companion,  and 
his  minister ! 

Some  of  "  the  bold  speakers,"  as  the  heads  of  the  opposi- 
tion are  frequently  designated  in  the  manuscript  letters,  have 
now  risen  into  notice.  Sir  John  Eliot,  Dr.  Turner,  Sir  Dud- 
ley Digges,  Mr.  Clement  Coke,  poured  themselves  forth  in  a 
vehement,  not  to  say  seditious  style,  with  invectives  more 
daring  than  had  ever  before  thundered  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons !  The  king  now  told  them,  "  I  come  to  show  your  er- 
rors, and,  as  I  may  call  it,  unparliamentary  proceedings  of 
parliament"  The  lord  keeper  then  assured  them,  that 
"  when  the  irregular  humours  of  some  particular  pe?°sons 
were  settled,  the  king  would  hear  and  answer  all  just  griev- 
ances ;  but  the  king  would  have  them  also  to  know,  that  he 
was  equally  jealous  to  the  contempt  of  his  royal  rights,  which 
his  majesty  would  not  suffer  to  be  violated  by  any  pretended 
course  of  parliamentary  liberty.  The  king  considered  the 
parliament  as  his  council ;  but  there  was  a  difference  between 
councilling  and  controlling,  and  between  liberty  and  the 
abuse  of  liberty."  He  finished  by  noticing  their  extraordi- 
nary proceedings  in  their  impeachment  of  Buckingham.  The 
king,  resuming  his  speech,  remarkably  reproached  the  parlia- 
ment. 

"Now  that  you  have  all  things  according  to  your  wishes,  and  that  Tarn 
so  far  engaged  that  you  think  there  is  no  retreat,  now  you  begin  to  set  the  dice, 
and  make  your  own  game.  But  I  pray  you  be  not  deceived ;  it  is  not  a  par- 
liamentary way,  nor  is  it  a  way  to  deal  with  a  king.  Mr.  Clement  Cok6 
told  you,  '  It  was  better  to  be  eaten  up  by  a  foreign  enemy  than  to  be  de- 
stroyed at  home ! 1  Indeed,  I  think  it  more  honour  for  a  king  to  be  invaded 
and  almost  destroyed  by  a  foreign  enemy  than  to  be  despised  by  his  own 
subjects." 


378         SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


The  king  concluded  by  asserting  his  privilege,  to  call  or  to 
forbid  parliaments. 

The  style  of  "  the  bold  speakers "  appeared  at  least  as 
early  as  in  April ;  I  trace  their  spirit  in  letters  of  the  times, 
which  furnish  facts  and  expressions  that  do  not  appear  in  our 
printed  documents. 

Among  the  earliest  of  our  patriots,  and  finally  the  great 
victim  of  his  exertions,  was  Sir  John  Eliot,  vice-admiral  of 
Devonshire.  He,  in  a  tone  which  "  rolled  back  to  Jove  his 
own  bolts,"  and  startled  even  the  writer,  who  was  himself 
biassed  to  the  popular  party,  "  made  a  resolute,  I  doubt 
whether,  a  timely  speech."  He  adds,  Eliot  asserted  that 
"  They  came  not  thither  either  to  do  what  the  king  should 
command  them,  nor  to  abstain  when  he  forbade  them  ;  they 
came  to  continue  constant,  and  to  maintain  their  privileges. 
They  would  not  give  their  posterity  a  cause  to  curse  them 
for  losing  their  privileges  by  restraint,  which  their  forefathers 
had  left  them."  * 

On  the  eighth  of  May,  the  impeachment  of  the  duke  was 
opened  by  Sir  Dudley  Digges,  who  compared  the  duke  to 
a  meteor  exhaled  out  of  putrid  matter.  He  was  followed  by 
Glanville,  Selden,  and  others.  On  this  first  day,  the  duke  sat 
out-facing  his  accusers  and  out-braving  their  accusations,  which 
the  more  highly  exasperated  the  house.  On  the  following  day 
the  duke  was  absent,  when  the  epilogue  to  this  mighty  piece 
was  elaborately  delivered  by  Sir  John  Eliot,  with  a  force  of 
declamation,  and  a  boldness  of  personal  allusion,  which  have 
not  been  surpassed  in  the  invectives  of  the  modern  Junius. 

Eliot,  after  expatiating  on  the  favourite's  ambition  in  pro- 
curing and  getting  into  his  hands  the  greatest  offices  of 
strength  and  power  in  the  kingdom,  and  the  means  by  which 
he  had  obtained  them,  drew  a  picture  of  "  the  inward  char- 
acter of  the  duke's  mind."  The  duke's  plurality  of  offices 
reminded  him  "  of  a  chimerical  beast  called  by  the  ancients 
Stellionatus,  so  blurred,  so  spotted,  so  full  of  foul  lines,  that 
*  Sloaiie  MSS.  4177.  Letter  317, 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


379 


they  knew  not  what  to  make  of  it !  In  setting  up  himself  he 
hath  set  upon  the  kingdom's  revenues,  the  fountain  of  supply, 
and  the  nerves  of  the  land — He  intercepts,  consumes,  and 
exhausts  the  revenues  of  the  crown  ;  and,  by  emptying  the 
veins  the  blood  should  run  in,  he  hath  cast  the  kingdom  into 
a  high  consumption."  He  descends  to  criminate  the  duke's 
magnificent  tastes ;  he  who  had  something  of  a  congenial  na- 
ture ;  for  Eliot  was  a  man  of  fine  literature.  "  Infinite  sums 
of  money,  and  mass  of  land  exceeding  the  value  of  money, 
contributions  in  parliament  have  been  heaped  upon  him  ;  and 
how  have  they  been  employed  ?  Upon  costly  furniture, 
sumptuous  feasting,  and  magnificent  building,  the  visible  evi- 
dence of  the  express  exhausting  of  the  state  !  " 
Eliot  eloquently  closes — 

"  Your  lordships  have  an  idea  of  the  man,  what  he  is  in  himself,  what  in 
his  affections !  You  have  seen  his  power,  and  some,  I  fear,  have  felt  it. 
You  have  known  his  practice,  and  have  heard  the  effects.  Being  such, 
what  is  he  in  reference  to  king  and  state;  how  compatible  or  incompatible 
with  either?  In  reference  to  the  king,  he  must  be  stjded  the  canker  in  his 
treasure ;  in  reference  to  the  state,  the  moth  of  all  goodness.  I  can  hardly 
find  him  a  parallel;  but  none  were  so  like  him  as  Sejanus,  who  is  described 
by  Tacitus,  Audax  ;  sui  obtegens,  in  alios  criminator  ;  juxta  adulatio  et  super- 
bin.  Sejanus's  pride  was  so  excessive,  as  Tacitus  saith,  that  he  neglected 
all  councils,  mixed  his  business  and  service  with  the  prince,  seeming  to 
confound  their  actions,  and  was  often  styled  hnperatoris  laborum  sucius. 
Doth  not  this  man  the  like?  Ask  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland — and 
they  will  tell  you !  How  lately  and  how  often  hath  this  man  commixed 
his  actions  in  discourses  with  actions  of  the  king's !  My  lords !  I  have 
done — you  see  the  man!  " 

The  parallel  of  the  duke  with  Sejanus  electrified  the  house  ; 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  touched  Charles  on  a  convulsive  nerve. 

The  king's  conduct  on  this  speech  was  the  beginning  of  his 
troubles,  and  the  first  of  his  more  open  attempts  to  crush  the 
popular  party.  In  the  house  of  lords  the  king  defended  the 
duke,  and  informed  them,  "  I  have  thought  fit  to  take  order 
for  the  punishing  some  insolent  speeches,  lately  spoken."  I 
find  a  piece  of  secret  history  inclosed  in  a  letter,  with  a  sol- 
3mn  injunction  that  it  might  be  burnt.  "  The  king  this  morn- 


380         SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


ing  complained  of  Sir  John  Eliot  for  comparing  the  duke  to 
Sej cuius,  in  which  he  said  implicitly  he  must  intend  me  for 
Tiberius  I  "  On  that  day  the  prologue  and  the  epilogue  ora- 
tors, Sir  Dudley  Digges,  who  had  opened  *he  impeachment 
against  the  duke,  and  Sir  John  Eliot  who  had  closed  it,  were 
called  out  of  the  house  by  two  messengers,  who  showed  their 
warrants  for  committing  them  to  the  Tower.* 

On  this  memorable  day  a  philosophical  politician  might 
have  presciently  marked  the  seed-plots  of  events,  which  not 
many  years  afterwards  were  apparent  to  all  men.  The  pas- 
sions of  kings  are  often  expatiated  on ;  but,  in  the  present 
anti-monarchical  period,  the  passions  of  parliaments  are  not 
imaginable  !  The  democratic  party  in  our  constitution,  from 
the  meanest  of  motives,  from  their  egotism,  their  vanity,  and 
their  audacity,  hate  kings ;  they  would  have  an  abstract 
being,  a  chimerical  sovereign  on  the  throne — like  a  statue,  the 
mere  ornament  of  the  place  it  fills, — and  insensible,  like  a 
statue,  to  the  invectives  they  would  heap  on  its  pedestal ! 

The  commons,  with  a  fierce  spirit  of  reaction  for  the  king's 
"  punishing  some  insolent  speeches,"  at  once  sent  up  to  the 
lords  for  the  commitment  of  the  duke  !  But  when  they  learnt 
the  fate  of  the  patriots,  they  instantaneously  broke  up  !  In 
the  afternoon  they  assembled  in  Westminster-hall,  to  inter- 
change their  private  sentiments  on  the  fate  of  the  two  im- 
prisoned members,  in  sadness  and  indignation. 

The  following  day  the  commons  met  in  their  own  house. 
When  the  speaker  reminded  them  of  the  usual  business,  they 
all  cried  out,  "  Sit  down  !  sit  down  !  "  They  would  touch  on 
no  business  till  they  were  "  righted  in  their  liberties !  "  f  An 

*  Our  printed  historical  documents,  Kennett,  Frankland,  &c.  are  con- 
fused in  their  details,  and  facts  seem  misplaced  for  want  of  dates.  They 
all  equally  copy  Rush  worth,  the  only  source  of  our  history  of  this  period. 
Even  Hume  is  involved  in  the  obscurity.  The  king's  speech  was  on  the 
eleventh  of  May.  As  Rush  worth  has  not  furnished  dates,  it  would  seem 
that  the  two  orators  had  been  sent  to  the  Tower  before  the  king's  speech  to 
the  lords. 

t  Frankland,  an  inveterate  royalist,  in  copying  Rushworth,  inserts  "  their 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


381 


open  committee  of  the  whole  house  was  formed,  and  no  mem- 
ber suffered  to  quit  the  house  ;  but  either  they  were  at  a  loss 
how  to  commence  this  solemn  conference,  or  expres.-ed  their 
indignation  by  a  sullen  silence.  To  soothe  and  subdue  "  the 
bold  speakers"  was  the  unfortunate  attempt  of  the  vice- 
chamberlain,  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  who  had  long  been  one  of 
our  foreign  ambassadors ;  and  who,  having  witnessed  the  des- 
potic governments  on  the  continent,  imagined  that  there  was 
no  deficiency  of  liberty  at  home.  "  I  find,"  said  the  vice- 
chamberlain,  "  by  the  great  silence  in  this  house,  that  it  is  a 
fit  time  to  be  heard,  if  you  will  grant  me  the  patience."  Al- 
luding to  one  of  the  king's  messages,  where  it  was  hinted 
that,  if  there  was  "  no  correspondency  between  him  and  the 
parliament,  he  should  be  forced  to  use  new  counsels,"  "  I  pray 
you  consider  what  these  new  counsels  are,  and  may  be  :  I  fear 
to  declare  those  I  conceive  !  "  However,  Sir  Dudley  plainly 
hinted  at  them,  when  he  went  on  observing,  that  "  when 
monarchs  began  to  know  their  own  strength,  and  saw  the  tur- 
bulent spirit  of  their  parliaments,  they  had  overthrown  them 
in  all  Europe,  except  here  only  with  us."  Our  old  ambassa- 
dor drew  an  amusing  picture  of  the  effects  of  despotic  gov- 
ernments, in  that  of  France — "  If  you  knew  the  subjects  in 
foreign  countries  as  well  as  myself,  to  see  them  look,  not  like 
our  nation,  with  store  of  flesh  on  their  backs,  but  like  so  many 
ghosts  and  not  men,  being  nothing  but  skin  and  bones,  with 
some  thin  cover  to  their  nakedness,  and  wearing  only  wooden 
shoes  on  their  feet,  so  that  they  cannot  eat  meat,  or  wear  good 
clothes,  but  they  must  pay  the  king  for  it ;  this  is  a  misery 
beyond  expression,  and  that  which  we  are  yet  free  from  ! " 
A  long  residence  abroad  had  deprived  Sir  Dudley  Carleton 
of  any  sympathy  with  the  high  tone  of  freedom,  and  the 
proud  jealousy  of  their  privileges,  which,  though  yet  unascer- 
tained, undefined,  and  still  often  contested,  was  breaking  forth 

pretended  liberties ; "  exactly  the  style  of  catholic  writers  when  they  men- 
tion protestantism  by  "  la  religion  pretendue  ref&rmee."  All  party  writers 
use  the  same  style ! 


382        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 

among  the  commons  of  England.  It  was  fated  that  the  celes- 
tial spirit  of  our  national  freedom  should  not  descend  among 
us  in  the  form  of  the  mystical  dove  ! 

Hume  observes  on  this  speech,  that  "these  imprudent  sug- 
gestions rather  gave  warning  than  struck  terror."  It  was 
evident  that  the  event,  which  implied  "  new  counsels,"  meant 
what  subsequently  was  practised — the  king  governing  with- 
out a  parliament !  As  for  "  the  ghost  who  wore  wooden  shoes," 
to  which  the  house  was  congratulated  that  they  had  not  yet 
been  reduced,  they  would  infer  that  it  was  the  more  necessary 
to  provide  against  the  possibility  of  such  strange  apparitions ! 
Hume  truly  observes,  "  The  king  reaped  no  further  benefit 
from  this  attempt  than  to  exasperate  the  house  still  further." 
Some  words,  which  the  duke  persisted  in  asserting  had  drop- 
ped from  Digges,  were  explained  away,  Digges  declaring  that 
they  had  not  been  used  by  him ;  and  it  seems  probable  that 
he  was  suffered  to  eat  his  words.  Eliot  was  made  of  "  ster- 
ner stuff ; "  he  abated  not  a  jot  of  whatever  he  had  spoken 
of  "  that  man,"  as  he  affected  to  call  Buckingham. 

The  commons,  whatever  might  be  their  patriotism,  seem  at 
first  to  have  been  chiefly  moved  by  a  personal  hatred  of  the 
favourite ;  and  their  real  charges  against  him  amounted  to 
little  more  than  pretences  and  aggravations.  The  king, 
whose  personal  affections  were  always  strong,  considered  his 
friend  innocent ;  and  there  was  a  warm,  romantic  feature  in 
the  character  of  the  youthful  monarch,  which  scorned  to  sac- 
rifice his  faithful  companion  to  his  own  interests,  and  to  im- 
molate the  minister  to  the  clamours  of  the  commons.  Sub- 
sequently, when  the  king  did  this  in  the  memorable  case  of 
the  guiltless  Strafford,  it  was  the  only  circumstance  which 
weighed  on  his  mind  at  the  hour  of  his  own  sacrifice !  Sir 
Robert  Cotton  told  a  friend,  on  the  day  on  which  the  king 
went  down  to  the  house  of  lords,  and  committed  the  two 
patriots,  that  "  he  had  of  late  been  often  sent  for  to  the  king 
and  duke,  and  that  the  king's  affection  towards  him  was  very 
admirable,  and  no  whit  lessened.    Certainly,"  he  added,  "  the 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


383 


king  will  never  yield  to  the  duke's  fall,  being  a  young  man, 
resolute,  magnanimous,  and  tenderly  and  firmly  affectionate 
where  he  takes."  *  This  authentic  character  of  Charles  the 
First  by  that  intelligent  and  learned  man,  to  whom  the  nation 
owes  the  treasures  of  its  antiquities,  is  remarkable.  Sir 
Robert  Cotton,  though  holding  no  rank  at  court,  and  in  no 
respect  of  the  duke's  party,  was  often  consulted  by  the  king, 
and  much  in  his  secrets.  How  the  king  valued  the  judgment 
of  this  acute  and  able  adviser,  acting  on  it  in  direct  contra- 
diction and  to  the  mortification  of  the  favourite,  I  shall  proba- 
bly have  occasion  to  show. 

The  commons  did  not  decline  in  the  subtle  spirit  with 
which  they  had  begun ;  they  covertly  aimed  at  once  to  sub- 
jugate the  sovereign,  and  to  expel  the  minister !  A  remon- 
strance was  prepared  against  the  levying  of  tonnage  and 
poundage,  which  constituted  half  of  the  crown  revenues ; 
and  a  petition,  "equivalent  to  a  command,"  for  removing 
Buckingham  from  his  majesty's  person  and  councils.f  The 
remonstrance  is  wrought  up  with  a  high  spirit  of  invective 
against  "the  unbridled  ambition  of  the  duke,"  whom  they 
class  "  among  those  vipers  and  pests  to  their  king  and  com- 
monwealth, as  so  expressly  styled  by  your  most  royal  father." 
They  request  that  "  he  would  be  pleased  to  remove  this  per- 
son from  access  to  his  sacred  presence,  and  that  he  would  not 
balance  this  one  man  with  all  these  things,  and  with  the 
affairs  of  the  Christian  world." 

The  king  hastily  dissolved  this  second  parliament  ;  and 
when  the  lords  petitioned  for  its  continuance,  he  warmly  and 
angrily  exclaimed,  "  Not  a  moment  longer  !  "  It  was  dissolved 
in  June,  1626. 

The  patriots  abandoned  their  sovereign  to  his  fate,  and 
retreated  home  sullen,  indignant,  and  ready  to  conspire  among 
themselves  for  the  assumption  of  their  disputed  or  their  de- 

*  Manuscript  letter. 

t  Rushworth,  i.  400.  Hume,  vi.  221,  who  enters  widely  into  the  views 
and  feelings  of  Charles. 


384        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 

fraudcd  liberties.  They  industriously  dispersed  their  remon- 
strance, and  the  king  replied  by  a  declaration ;  but  an  attack 
is  always  more  vigorous  than  a  defence.  The  declaration  is 
spiritless,  and  evidently  composed  under  suppressed  feelings, 
which,  perhaps,  knew  not  how  to  shape  themselves.  The 
"  Remonstrance  "  was  commanded  everywhere  to  be  burnt ; 
and  the  effect  which  it  produced  on  the  people  we  shall  shortly 
witness. 

The  king  was  left  amidst  the  most  pressing  exigencies.  At 
the  dissolution  of  the  first  parliament,  he  had  been  compelled 
to  practise  a  humiliating  economy.  Hume  has  alluded  to  the 
numerous  wants  of  the  young  monarch  ;  but  he  certainly  was 
not  acquainted  with  the  king's  extreme  necessities.  His  coro- 
nation seemed  rather  a  private  than  a  public  ceremony.  To 
save  the  expenses  of  the  procession  from  the  Tower  through 
the  city  to  Whitehall,  that  customary  pomp  was  omitted  ;  and 
the  reason  alleged  was  "  to  save  the  charges  for  more  noble 
undertakings ! "  that  is,  for  means  to  carry  on  the  Spanish 
war  without  supplies !  But  now  the  most  extraordinary 
changes  appeared  at  court.  The  king  mortgaged  his  lands 
in  Cornwall  to  the  aldermen  and  companies  of  London.  A 
rumour  spread  that  the  small  pension  list  must  be  revoked ; 
and  the  royal  distress  was  carried  so  far,  that  all  the  tables  at 
court  were  laid  down,  and  the  courtiers  put  on  board-wages ! 
I  have  seen  a  letter  which  gives  an  account  of  "  the  funeral 
supper  at  Whitehall,  whereat  twenty-three  tables  were  buried, 
being  from  henceforth  converted  to  board-wages  ; "  and  there 
I  learn,  that  "since  this  dissolving  of  house-keeping,  his 
majesty  is  but  slenderly  attended."  Another  writer,  who 
describes  himself  to  be  only  a  looker-on,  regrets,  that  while 
the  men  of  the  law  spent  ten  thousand  pounds  on  a  single 
masque,  they  did  not  rather  make  the  king  rich ;  and  adds, 
"  I  see  a  rich  commonwealth,  a  rich  people,  and  the  crown 
poor !  "  This  strange  poverty  of  the  court  of  Charles  seems 
to  have  escaped  the  notice  of  our  general  historians.  Charles 
was  now  to  victual   his   fleet  with   the  savings  of  the 


AND  HTS  FIEST  PARLIAMENTS. 


385 


board-wages !  for  this  "  surplusage "  was  taken  into  ac- 
count ! 

The  fatal  descent  on  the  Isle  of  Rhe  sent  home  Bucking- 
ham discomfited,  and  spread  dismay  through  the  nation.  The 
best  blood  had  been  shed  from  the  wanton  bravery  of  an  un- 
skilful and  romantic  commander,  who,  forced  to  retreat, 
would  march,  but  not  fly,  and  was  the  very  last  man  to  quit 
the  ground  which  he  could  not  occupy.  In  the  eagerness  of 
his  hopes,  Buckingham  had  once  dropped,  as  I  learn,  that 
"  before  Midsummer  he  should  be  more  honoured  and  be- 
loved of  the  commons  than  ever  was  the  Earl  of  Essex : " 
and  thus  he  rocked  his  own  and  his  master's  imagination  in 
cradling  fancies.  This  volatile  hero,  who  had  felt  the  capri- 
ciousness  of  popularity,  thought  that  it  was  as  easily  regained 
as  it  was  easily  lost ;  and  that  a  chivalric  adventure  would 
return  to  him  that  favour  which  at  this  moment  might  have 
been  denied  to  all  the  wisdom,  the  policy,  and  the  arts  of  an 
experienced  statesman. 

The  king  was  now  involved  in  more  intricate  and  desperate 
measures ;  and  the  nation  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  agita- 
tion, of  which  the  page  of  popular  history  yields  but  a  faint 
impression. 

The  spirit  of  insurrection  was  stalking  forth  in  the  metrop- 
olis and  in  the  country.  The  scenes  which  I  am  about  to 
describe  occurred  at  the  close  of  1626  :  an  inattentive  reader 
might  easily  mistake  them  for  the  revolutionary  scenes  of 
1640.    It  was  an  unarmed  rebellion. 

An  army  and  a  navy  had  returned  unpaid,  and  sore  with 
defeat.  The  town  was  scoured  by  mutinous  seamen  and 
soldiers,  roving  even  into  the  palace  of  the  sovereign.  Sol- 
diers without  pay  form  a  society  without  laws.  A  band  of 
captains  rushed  into  the  duke's  apartment  as  he  sat  at  dinner  ; 
and  when  reminded  by  the  duke  of  a  late  proclamation,  for- 
bidding all  soldiers  coming  to  court  in  troops,  on  pain  of 
hanging,  they  replied,  that  u  Whole  companies  were  ready  to 
be  hanged  with  them !  that  the  king  might  do  as  he  pleased 

VOL.  IV.  25 


38G        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


with  their  lives  ;  for  that  their  reputation  was  lost,  and  their 
honour  forfeited,  for  want  of  their  salary  to  pay  their  debts." 
When  a  petition  was  once  presented,  and  it  was  inquired  who 
was  the  composer  of  it,  a  vast  body  tremendously  shouted 
"All!  all!"  A  multitude,  composed  of  seamen,  met  at 
Tower-hill,  and  set  a  lad  on  a  scaffold,  who,  with  an  "  O  yes  ! " 
proclaimed  that  King  Charles  had  promised  their  pay,  or  the 
duke  had  been  on  the  scaffold  himself!  These,  at  least,  were 
grievances  more  apparent  to  the  sovereign  than  those  vague 
ones  so  perpetually  repeated  by  his  unfaithful  commons. 
But  what  remained  to  be  done  ?  It  was  only  a  choice  of 
difficulties  between  the  disorder  and  the  remedy.  At  the 
moment,  the  duke  got  up  what  he  called  "  The  council  of  the 
sea  ; "  was  punctual  at  its  first  meeting,  and  appointed  three 
days  in  a  week  to  sit — but  broke  his  appointment  the  second 
day — they  found  him  always  otherwise  engaged ;  and  "  the 
council  of  the  sea ''  turned  out  to  be  one  of  those  shadowy 
expedients  which  only  lasts  while  it  acts  on  the  imagination. 
It  is  said  that  thirty  thousand  pounds  would  have  quieted 
these  disorganized  troops ;  but  the  exchequer  could  not  sup- 
ply so  mean  a  sum.  Buckingham  in  despair,  and  profuse  of 
life,  was  planning  a  fresh  expedition  for  the  siege  of  Rochelle ; 
a  new  army  was  required.  He  swore,  "  if  there  was  money 
in  the  kingdom  it  should  be  had !  " 

Now  began  that  series  of  contrivances  and  artifices  and 
persecutions  to  levy  money.  Forced  loans,  or  pretended 
free-gifts,  kindled  a  resisting  spirit.  It  was  urged  by  the 
court  party,  that  the  sums  required  were,  in  fact,  much  less 
in  amount  than  the  usual  grants  of  subsidies  ;  but  the  cry, 
in  return  for  "  a  subsidy,"  was  always  "  a  Parliament ! " 
Many  were  heavily  fined  for  declaring,  that  "  they  knew  no 
law  besides  that  of  Parliament,  to  compel  men  to  give  away 
their  own  goods."  The  king  ordered,  that  those  who  would 
not  subscribe  to  the  loans  should  not  be  forced  ;  but  it  seems 
there  were  orders  in  council  to  specify  those  householder.-;' 
names  who  would  not  subscribe  ;  and  it  further  appears,  that 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


387 


those  who  would  not  pay  in  purse  should  in  person.  Those 
who  were  pressed  were  sent  to  the  depot ;  but  either  the 
soldiers  would  not  receive  these  good  citizens,  or  they  found 
easy  means  to  return.  Every  mode  which  the  government 
invented  seems  to  have  been  easily  frustrated,  either  by  the 
intrepidity  of  the  parties  themselves,  or  by  that  general  un- 
derstanding which  enabled  the  people  to  play  into  one  an- 
other's hands.  When  the  common  council  had  consented 
that  an  imposition  should  be  laid,  the  citizens  called  the 
Guild-hall  the  Yield-all  i  And  whenever  they  levied  a 
distress,  in  consequence  of  a  refusal  to  pay  it,  nothing  was 
to  be  found  but  "  Old  ends,  such  as  nobody  cared  for."  Or 
if  a  severer  officer  seized  on  commodities,  it  was  in  vain  to 
offer  penny-worths  where  no  customer  was  to  be  had.  A 
wealthy  merchant,  who  had  formerly  been  a  cheesemonger, 
was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  privy  council,  and  re- 
quired to  lend  the  king  two  hundred  pounds,  or  else  to  go 
himself  to  the  army,  and  serve  it  with  cheese.  It  was  not 
supposed  that  a  merchant,  so  aged  and  wealthy,  would  sub- 
mit to  resume  his  former  mean  trade  ;  but  the  old  man,  in 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  preferred  the  hard  alternative,  and 
balked  the  new  project  of  finance,  by  shipping  himself  with 
his  cheese.  At  Hicks's  Hall  the  duke  and  the  Earl  of  Dor- 
set sat  to  receive  the  loans ;  but  the  duke  threatened,  and  the 
earl  affected  to  treat  with  levity,  men  who  came  before  them 
with  all  the  suppressed  feelings  of  popular  indignation.  The 
Earl  of  Dorset  asking  a  fellow  who  pleaded  inability  to  lend 
money,  of  what  trade  he  was,  and  being  answered  "  a  tailor," 
said :  "  Put  down  your  name  for  such  a  sum  ;  one  snip  will 
make  amends  for  all ! "  The  tailor  quoted  scripture  abun- 
dantly, and  shook  the  bench  with  laughter  or  with  rage  by  his 
anathemas,  till  he  was  put  fast  into  a  messenger's  hands.  This 
was  one  Ball,  renowned  through  the  parish  of  St.  Clement's ; 
and  not  only  a  tailor,  but  a  prophet.  Twenty  years  after, 
tailors  and  prophets  employed  messengers  themselves  !  * 
*  The  Radicals  of  that  day  differed  from  ours  in  the  means,  though  not 


388        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


These  are  instances  drawn  from  the  inferior  classes  of 
society ;  but  the  same  spirit  actuated  the  country  gentlemen : 
one  instance  represents  many.  George  Gatesby,  of  North- 
amptonshire, being  committed  to  prison  as  a  loan-recusant, 
alleged,  among  other  reasons  for  his  non-compliance,  that 
"  he  considered  that  this  loan  might  become  a  precedent ; 
and  that  every  precedent,  he  was  told  by  the  lord  president, 
was  a  flower  of  the  prerogative."  The  lord  president  told 
him  that  "  he  lied  !  "  Gatesby  shook  his  head,  observing, 
"  I  come  not  here  to  contend  with  your  lordship,  but  to 
suffer  ! "  Lord  Suffolk  then  interposing,  entreated  the  lord 
president  would  not  too  far  urge  his  kinsman,  Mr.  Gatesby. 
This  country  gentleman  waived  any  kindness  he  might  owe 
to  kindred,  declaring,  that  "  he  would  remain  master  of  his 
own  purse."  The  prisons  were  crowded  with  these  loan- 
recusants,  as  well  as  with  those  who  had  sinned  in  the  free- 
dom of  their  opinions.  The  country  gentlemen  insured  their 
popularity  by  their  committals  ;  and  many  stout  resisters  of 
the  loans  were  returned  in  the  following  parliament  against 
their  own  wishes.*    The  friends  of  these  knights  and  country 

in  the  end.  They  at  least  referred  to  their  Bibles,  and  rather  more  than 
was  required;  but  superstition  is  as  mad  as  atheism!  Many  of  the  puri- 
tans confused  their  brains  with  the  study  of  the  Revelations ;  believing 
Prince  Henry  to  be  prefigured  in  the  Apocalypse ;  some  prophesied  that 
he  should  overthrow  "  the  beast."  Ball,  our  tailor,  was  this  very  prophet ; 
and  was  so  honest  as  to  believe  in  his  own  prophecy.  Osborn  tells,  that 
Ball  put  out  money  on  adventure;  i.  e.  to  receive  it  back  double  or  treble, 
when  King  James  should  be  elected  pope!  So  that  though  he  had  no 
money  for  a  loan,  he  had  to  spare  for  a  prophecy. 

This  Ball  has  been  confounded  with  a  more  ancient  radical,  Ball,  a 
priest,  and  a  principal  mover  in  Wat  Tyler's  insurrection.  Our  Ball 
must  have  been  very  notorious,  for  Jonson  has  noticed  his  "  admired 
discourses."  Mr.  Gifford,  without  any  knowledge  of  my  account  of  this 
tailor-prophet,  by  his  active  sagacity  has  rightly  indicated  him. —  See 
Jonson's  Works,  vol.  v.  p.  241. 

*  It  is  curious  to  observe,  that  the  Westminster  elections,  in  the  fourth 
year  of  Charles's  reign,  were  exactly  of  the  same  turbulent  character  as 
those  which  we  witness  in  our  days.  The  duke  had  counted  by  his  in- 
terest to  bring  in  Sir  Robert  Pye.  The  contest  was  severe,  but  accom- 
panied by  some  of  those  ludicrous  electioneering  scenes,  which  still  amuse 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


389 


gentlemen  flocked  to  their  prisons  ;  and  when  they  petitioned 
for  more  liberty  and  air  during  the  summer,  it  was  policy  to 
grant  their  request.  But  it  was  also  policy  that  they  should 
not  reside  in  their  own  counties  :  this  relaxation  was  only 
granted  to  those  who,  living  in  the  south,  consented  to  sojourn 
in  the  north  ;  while  the  dwellers  in  the  north  were  to  be 
lodged  in  the  south  ! 

In  the  country  the  disturbed  scenes  assumed  even  a  more 
alarming  appearance  than  in  London.  They  not  only  would 
not  provide  money,  but  when  money  was  offered  by  govern- 
ment, the.  men  refused  to  serve  ;  a  conscription  was  not  then 
known  :  and  it  became  a  question,  long  debated  in  the  privy 
council,  whether  those  who  would  not  accept  press-money 
should  not  be  tried  by  martial  law.  I  preserve  in  the  note  a 
curious  piece  of  secret  information.*  The  great  novelty  and 
symptom  of  the  times  was  the  scattering  of  letters.  Sealed 
letters  addressed  to  the  leading  men  of  the  country,  were 

the  mob.  Whenever  Sir  Robert  Rye's  party  cried — "APye!  aPye!  a 
Pye!"  the  adverse  party  would  cry — "A  pudding!  a  pudding!  a  pud- 
ding!" and  others — "A  lie!  a  lie!  a  lie!"  This  Westminster  election, 
of  two  hundred  years  ago,  ended  as  we  have  seen  some  others;  they  re- 
jected all  who  had  urged  the  payment  of  the  loans;  and,  passing  by  such 
men  as  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  and  their  last  representative,  they  fixed  on  a 
brewer  and  a  grocer  for  the  two  members  for  Westminster. 

*  Extract  from  a  manuscript  letter. — "  On  Friday  last  I  hear,  but  as  a 
secret,  that  it  was  debated  at  the  council-table,  whether  our  Essex  men, 
who  refused  to  take  press-money,  should  not  be  punished  by  martial-law, 
and  hanged  up  on  the  next  tree  to  their  dwellings,  for  an  example  of  ter- 
ror to  others.  My  lord  keeper,  who  had  been  long  silent,  when,  in  conclu- 
sion, it  came  to  his  course  to  speak,  told  the  lords,  that  as  far  as  he  under- 
stood the  law,  none  were  liable  to  martial  law,  but  martial  men.  If  these  had 
taken  press-money,  and  afterwards  run  from  their  colours,  they  might  then 
be  punished  in  that  manner;  but  yet  they  were  no  soldiei's,  and  refused  to 
be.  Secondly,  he  thought  a  subsidy,  new  by  law,  could  not  be  pressed 
against  his  will  for  a  foreign  service;  it  being  supposed,  in  law,  the  service 
of  his  purse  excused  that  of  his  person,  unless  his  own  country  were  in 
danger;  and  he  appealed  to  my  lord  treasurer,  and  my  lord  president, 
whether  it  was  not  so,  who  both  assented  it  was  so,  though  some  of  them 
Taintly,  as  unwilling  to  have  been  urged  to  such  an  answer.  So  it  is 
thought  that  proposition  is  dashed;  and  it  will  be  tried  what  may  be  don« 
in  the  Star-chamber  against  these  refractories." 


390        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


found  hanging  on  bushes  ;  anonymous  letters  were  dropped 
in  shops  and  streets,  which  gave  notice,  that  the  day  was  fast 
approaching,  when  "  Such  a  work  was  to  be  wrought  in  Eng- 
land, as  never  was  the  like,  which  will  be  for  our  good." 
Addresses  multiplied  "  To  all  true-hearted  Englishmen  !  " 
A  groom  detected  in  spreading  such  seditious  papers,  and 
brought  into  the  inexorable  Star-chamber,  was  fined  three 
thousand  pounds  !  The  leniency  of  the  punishment  was 
rather  regretted  by  two  bishops  ;  if  it  was  ever  carried  into 
execution,  the  unhappy  man  must  have  remained  a  groom 
who  never  after  crossed  a  horse  ! 

There  is  one  difficult  duty  of  an  historian,  which  is  too 
often  passed  over  by  the  party-writer ;  it  is  to  pause  when- 
ever he  feels  himself  warming  with  the  passions  of  the  mul- 
titude, or  becoming  the  blind  apologist  of  arbitrary  power. 
An  historian  must  transform  himself"  into  the  characters  which 
he  is  representing,  and  throw  himself  back  into  the  times 
which  he  is  opening  ;  possessing  himself  of  their  feelings  and 
tracing  their  actions,  he  may  then  at  least  hope  to  discover 
truths  which  may  equally  interest  the  honourable  men  of  all 
parties. 

This  reflection  has  occurred  from  the  very  difficulty  into 
which  I  am  now  brought.  Shall  we  at  once  condemn  the 
king  for  these  arbitrary  measures?  It  is,  however,  very 
possible  that  they  were  never  in  his  contemplation  !  Involved 
in  inextricable  difficulties,  according  to  his  feelings,  he  was 
betrayed  by  parliament;  and  he  scorned  to  barter  their 
favour  by  that  vulgar  traffic  of  treachery — the  immolation 
of  the  single  victim  who  had  long  attached  his  personal  affec- 
tions ;  a  man  at  least  as  much  envied  as  hated !  that  hard 
lesson  had  not  yet  been  inculcated  on  a  British  sovereign, 
that  his  bosom  must  be  a  blank  for  all  private  affection ;  and 
had  that  lesson  been  taught,  the  character  of  Charles  was 
destitute  of  all  aptitude  for  it.  To  reign  without  a  refractory 
parliament,  and  to  find  among  the  people  themselves  subjects 
more  loyal  than  their  representatives,  was  an  experiment — ■ 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


391 


and  a  fatal  one  !  Under  Charles,  the  liberty  of  the  subject, 
when  the  necessities  of  the  state  pressed  on  the  sovereign, 
was  matter  of  discussion,  disputed  as  often  as  assumed  ;  the 
divines  were  proclaiming  as  rebellious  those  who  refused 
their  contributions  to  aid  the  government;*  and  the  law- 
sages  alleged  precedents  for  raising  supplies  in  the  manner 
which  Charles  had  adopted.  Selden,  whose  learned  industry 
was  as  vast  as  the  amplitude  of  his  mind,  had  to  seek  for  the 
freedom  of  the  subject  in  the  dust  of  the  records  of  the 
Tower — and  the  omnipotence  of  parliaments,  if  any  human 
assembly  may  be  invested  with  such  supernatural  greatness, 

*  A  member  of  the  house,  in  James  the  First's  time,  called  this  race  of 
divines  "  Spaniels  to  the  court  and  wolves  to  the  people."  Dr.  Mainwar- 
ing,  Dr.  Sibthorpe,  and  Dean  Bargrave  were  seeking  for  ancient  precedents 
to  maintain  absolute  monarchy,  and  to  inculcate  passive  obedience.  Bar- 
grave  had  this  passage  in  his  sermon :  "  It  was  the  speech  of  a  man 
renowned  for  wisdom  in  our  age,  that  if  he  were  commanded  to  put  forth 
to  sea  in  a  ship  that  had  neither  mast  nor  tackling,  he  would  doit:" 
and  being  asked  wThat  wisdom  that  were,  replied,  "  The  wisdom  must  be 
in  him  that  hath  power  to  command,  not  in  him  that  conscience  binds  to 
obey."  Sibthorpe,  after  he  published  his  sermon,  immediately  had  his 
house  burnt  down.  Dr.  Mainwaring,  says  a  manuscript  letter-writer, 
"sent  the  other  day  to  a  friend  of  mine,  to  help  him  to  all  the  ancient 
precedents  he  could  find,  to  strengthen  his  opinion,  (for  absolute  monarchy,) 
who  answered  him  he  could  help  him  in  nothing  but  only  to  hang  him, 
and  that  if  he  lived  till  a  parliament,  or,  &c.  he  should  be  sure  of  a 
halter."  Mainwaring  afterwards  submitted  to  parliament;  but  after  the 
dissolution  got  a  free  pardon.  The  panic  of  popery  was  a  great  evil. 
The  divines,  under  Laud,  appeared  to  approach  to  Catholicism;  but  it  was 
probably  only  a  project  of  reconciliation  between  the  two  churches,  which 
Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles,  equally  wished.  Mr.  Cosins,  a  letter- 
writer,  is  censured  for  "superstition"  in  this  bitter  style:  "Mr.  Cosins 
has  impudently  made  three  editions  of  his  prayer-book,  and  one  which  he 
gives  away  in  private,  different  from  the  published  ones.  An  audacious 
fellow,  whom  my  Lord  of  Durham  greatly  admirefh.  I  doubt  if  he  be  a 
sound  protestant:  he  was  so  blind  at  even-song  on  Candlemas-day,  that 
he  could  not  see  to  read  prayers  in  the  minster  with  less  than  three  hun- 
dred and  forty  candles,  whereof  sixty  he  caused  to  be  placed  about  the 
high  altar;  besides  he  caused  the  picture  of  our  Saviour,  supported  by 
two  angels,  to  be  set  in  the  choir.  The  committee  is  very  hot  against 
him,  and  no  matter  if  they  trounce  him."  This  was  Cosins,  who  survived 
the  revolution,  and  returning  with  Charles  the  Second,  was  raised  to  the 
see  of  Durham:  the  charitable  institutions  he  has  left  ai-e  most  munificent 


392 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


had  not  yet  awakened  the  hoar  antiquity  of  popular 
liberty. 

A  general  spirit  of  insurrection,  rather  than  insurrection 
itself,  had  suddenly  raised  some  strange  appearances  through 
the  kingdom.  "  The  remonstrance  "  of  parliament  had  un- 
questionably quickened  the  feelings  of  the  people :  but  yet 
the  lovers  of  peace  and  the  reverencers  of  royalty  were  not 
a  few ;  money  and  men  were  procured,  to  send  out  the  army 
and  the  fleet.  More  concealed  causes  may  be  suspected  to 
have  been  at  work.  Many  of  the  heads  of  the  opposition 
were  pursuing  some  secret  machinations ;  about  this  time  I 
find  many  mysterious  stories — indications  of  secret  societies 
i — and  other  evidences  of  the  intrigues  of  the  popular  party. 

Little  matters,  sometimes  more  important  than  they  ap- 
pear, are  suitable  to  our  minute  sort  of  history.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1G26,  a  rumour  spread  that  the  king  was  to  be  visited 
by  an  ambassador  from  "  the  President  of  the  Society  of  the 
Rosycross."  He  was  indeed  an  heteroclite  ambassador,  for 
he  is  described  "  as  a  youth  with  never  a  hair  on  his  face ; " 
in  fact,  a  child  who  was  to  conceal  the  mysterious  personage 
which  he  was  for  a  moment  to  represent.  He  appointed 
Sunday  afternoon  to  come  to  court,  attended  by  thirteen 
coaches.  He  was  to  proffer  to  his  majesty,  provided  the 
king  accepted  his  advice,  three  millions  to  put  into  his  cof- 
fers ;  and  by  his  secret  councils  he  was  to  unfold  matters  of 
moment  and  secrecy.  A  Latin  letter  was  delivered  to 
"  David  Ramsey  of  the  clock,"  to  hand  over  to  the  king :  a 
copy  of  it  has  been  preserved  in  a  letter  of  the  times ;  but  it 
is  so  unmeaning,  that  it  could  have  had  no  effect  on  the  king, 
who,  however,  declared  that  he  would  not  admit  him  to  an 
audience,  and  that  if  he  could  tell  where  "  the  President  of 
the  Rosycross "  was  to  be  found,  unless  he  made  good  his 
offer,  he  would  hang  him  at  the  court-gates.  This  served 
the  town  and  country  for  talk  till  the  appointed  Sunday  had 
passed  over,  and  no  ambassador  was  visible !  Some  con- 
sidered this  as  the  plotting  of  crazy  brains,  but  others  im- 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


393 


agined  it  to  be  an  attempt  to  speak  with  the  king  in  private, 
on  matters  respecting  the  duke. 

There  was  also  discovered,  by  letters  received  from  Rome, 
"  a  whole  parliament  of  Jesuits  sitting "  in  "  a  fair-hanged 
vault"  in  Clerkenwell.*  Sir  John  Cooke  would  have 
alarmed  the  parliament,  that  on  St.  Joseph's  day  these  were 
to  have  occupied  their  places  ;  ministers  are  supposed  some- 
times to  have  conspirators  for  "  the  nonce ; "  Sir  Dudley 
Digges,  in  the  opposition,  as  usual,  would  not  believe  in  any 
such  political  necromancers;  but  such  a  party  were  dis- 
covered; Cooke  would  have  insinuated  that  the  French  am- 
bassador had  persuaded  Louis,  that  the  divisions  between 
Charles  and  his  people  had  been  raised  by  his  ingenuity,  and 
was  rewarded  for  the  intelligence ;  this  is  not  unlikely. 
After  all,  the  parliament  of  Jesuits  might  have  been  a  secret 
college  of  the  order  ;  for,  among  other  things  seized  on,  was 
a  considerable  library. 

When  the  parliament  was  sitting,  a  sealed  letter  was 
thrown  under  the  door,  with  this  superscription,  Cursed  be 
the  man  that  finds  this  letter,  and  delivers  it  not  to  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  serjeant-at-arms  delivered  it  to  the  speaker, 
who  would  not  open  it  till  the  house  had  chosen  a  committee 
of  twelve  members  to  inform  them  whether  it  was  fit  to  be 
read.  Sir  Edward  Coke,  after  having  read  two  or  three 
lines,  stopped,  and  according  to  my  authority,  "durst  read  no 
further,  but  immediately  sealing  it,  the  committee  thought  fit 
to  send  it  to  the  king,  who  they  say,  on  reading  it  through, 
cast  it  into  the  fire,  and  sent  the  house  of  commons  thanks 
for  their  wisdom  in  not  publishing  it,  and  for  the  discretion 
of  the  committee  in  so  far  tendering  his  honour,  as  not  to 
read  it  out,  when  they  once  perceived  that  it  touched  his 
majesty."  f 

*  Rushworth's  Collections,  i.  514. 

t  I  deliver  this  fact  as  I  find  it  in  a  private  letter;  but  it  is  noticed  in 
the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Commons,  23  Junii,  4°.  Caroli  Re^is.  "  Sir 
Edward  Coke  reporteth  that  they  find  that,  inclosed  in  the  letter,  to  be 


394 


SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


Others,  besides  the  freedom  of  speech,  introduced  another 
form,  "A  speech  without  doors,"  which  was  distributed  to  the 
members  of  the  house.  It  is  in  all  respects  a  remarkable 
one,  occupying  ten  folio  pages  in  the  first  volume  of  Rush- 
worth. 

Some  in  office  appear  to  have  employed  extraordinary 
proceedings  of  a  similar  nature.  An  intercepted  letter  writ- 
ten from  the  Archduchess  to  the  King  of  Spain  was  de- 
livered by  Sir  H.  Martyn  at  the  council-board  on  New-year's 
day,  who  found  it  in  some  papers  relating  to  the  navy.  The 
duke  immediately  said  he  would  show  it  to  the  king ;  and, 
accompanied  by  several  lords,  went  into  his  majesty's  closet. 
The  letter  was  written  in  French  ;  it  advised  the  Spanish 
court  to  make  a  sudden  war  with  England,  for  several 
reasons  ;  his  majesty's  want  of  skill  to  govern  of  himself ;  the 
weakness  of  his  council  in  not  daring  to  acquaint  him  with 
the  truth;  want  of  money;  disunion  of  the  subjects'  hearts 
from  their  prince,  &c.  The  king  only  observed,  that  the 
writer  forgot  that  the  Archduchess  writes  to  the  king  of 
Spain  in  Spanish,  and  sends  her  letters  overland. 

I  have  to  add  an  important  fact.  I  find  certain  evidence 
that  the  heads  of  the  opposition  were  busily  active  in  thwart- 
ing the  measures  of  government.  Dr.  Samuel  Turner,  the 
member  for  Shrewsbury,  called  on  Sir  John  Cage,  and  de- 
sired to  speak  to  him  privately  ;  his  errand  was  to  entreat 
him  to  resist  the  loan,  and  to  use  his  power  with  others  to 
obtain  this  purpose.  The  following  information  comes  from 
Sir  John  Cage  himself.  Dr.  Turner  "  being  desired  to  stay, 
he  would  not  a  minute,  but  instantly  took  horse,  saying  he 
had  more  places  to  go  to,  and  time  pressed  ;  that  there  ivas  a 
company  of  them  had  divided  themselves  into  all  parts,  every 

unfit  for  any  subject's  ear  to  hear.  Read  but  one  line  and  a  half  of  it,  and 
could  not  endure  to  read  more  of  it.  It  was  ordered  to  be  sealed  and  de- 
livered into  the  king's  hands  by  eight  members,  and  to  acquaint  his 
majesty  with  the  place  and  time  of  finding  it;  particularly  that  upon  the 
reading  of  one  line  and  a  half  at  most,  they  would  read  no  more,  but 
sealed  it  up,  and  brought  it  to  the  House." 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS.  395 

one  having  had  a  quarter  assigned  to  hi?n,  to  perform  this 
service  for  the  commonwealth."  This  was  written  in  Novem- 
ber, 1626.  This  unquestionably  amounts  to  a  secret  confed- 
eracy watching  out  of  parliament  as  well  as  in  ;  and  those 
strange  appearances  of  popular  defection  exhibited  in  the 
country,  which  I  have  described,  were  in  great  part  the  con- 
sequences of  the  machinations  and  active  intrigues  of  the 
popular  party.* 

The  king  was  not  disposed  to  try  a  third  parliament.  The 
favourite,  perhaps  to  regain  that  popular  favour  which  his 
greatness  had  lost  him,  is  said  in  private  letters  to  have  been 
twice  on  his  knees  to  intercede  for  a  new  one.  The  elections 
however  foreboded  no  good  ;  and  a  letter-writer  connected 
with  the  court,  in  giving  an  account  of  them,  prophetically 
declared,  "  we  are  without  question  undone  !  " 

The  king's  speech  opens  with  the  spirit  which  he  himself 
felt,  but  which  he  could  not  communicate  : — 

"  The  times  are  for  action:  wherefore,  for  example's  sake,  I  mean  not  to 
spend  much  time  in  words!  If  you,  which  God  forbid,  should  not  do  your 
duties  in  contributing  what  the  state  at  this  time  needs,  I  must,  in  dis- 
charge of  my  conscience,  use  those  other  means  which  God  hath  put  into  my 
hands,  to  save  that,  which  the  follies  of  some  particular  men  may  other- 
wise hazard  to  lose."  He  added,  with  the  loftiness  of  ideal  majesty — 
"  Take  not  this  as  a  threatening,  for  1  scorn  to  threaten  any  but  my  equals ; 
but  as  an  admonition  from  him,  that,  both  out  of  natuie  and  duty,  hath 
most  care  of  your  preservations  and  prosperities:  "  and  in  a  more  friendly 
tone  he  requested  them  "  To  remember  a  thing  to  the  end  that  we  may  for- 
get it.  You  may  imagine  that  I  come  here  with  a  doubt  of  success,  remem- 
bering the  distractions  of  the  last  meeting;  but  I  assure  you  that  I  shall 
very  easily  forget  and  forgive  what  is  past." 

A  most  crowded  house  now  met,  composed  of  the  wealthi- 
est men  ;  for  a  lord,  who  probably  considered  that  property 
was  the  true  balance  of  power,  estimated  that  they  were  able 
to  buy  the  upper-house,  his  majesty  only  excepted  !  The 
aristocracy  of  wealth  had  already  begun  to  be  felt.    Some  ill 

*  I  have  since  discovered,  by  a  manuscript  letter,  that  this  Dr.  Turner 
was  held  in  contempt  by  the  king;  that  he  was  ridiculed  at  court,  which 
he  haunted,  for  his  want  of  veracity ;  in  a  word,  that  he  was  a  disappointed 
courtier ! 


396        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


omens  of  the  parliament  appeared.  Sir  Robert  Philips 
moved  for  a  general  fast :  "  we  had  one  for  the  plague  which 
it  pleased  God  to  deliver  us  from,  and  we  have  now  so  many 
plagues  of  the  commonwealth  about  his  majesty's  person, 
that  we  have  need  of  such  an  act  of  humiliation."  Sir  Ed- 
ward Coke  held  it  most  necessary,  "  because  there  are,  I  fear> 
some  devils  that  will  not  be  cast  out  but  by  fasting  and 
prayer." 

Many  of  the  speeches  in  "  this  great  council  of  the  king- 
dom "  are  as  admirable  pieces  of  composition  as  exist  in 
the  language.  Even  the  court-party  were  moderate,  extenu- 
ating rather  than  pleading  for  the  late  necessities.  But  the 
evil  spirit  of  party,  however  veiled,  was  walking  amidst  them 
all :  a  letter-writer  represents  the  natural  state  of  feelings : 
"  Some  of  the  parliament  talk  desperately ;  while  others,  of 
as  high  a  course  to  enforce  money,  if  they  yield  not !  "  Such 
is  the  perpetual  action  and  reaction  of  public  opinion  ;  when 
one  side  will  give  too  little,  the  other  is  sure  to  desire  too 
much ! 

The  parliament  granted  subsidies. — Sir  John  Cooke  hav- 
ing brought  up  the  report  to  the  king,  Charles  expressed 
great  satisfaction,  and  declared  that  he  felt  now  more  happy 
than  any  of  his  predecessors.  Inquiring  of  Sir  John  by  how 
many  voices  he  had  carried  it  ?  Cooke  replied,  But  by  one  ! 
— at  which  his  majesty  seemed  appalled,  and  asked  how 
many  were  against  him  ?  Cooke  answered  "  None !  the 
unanimity  of  the  House  made  all  but  one  voice  ! "  at  which 
his  majesty  wept !  *  If  Charles  shed  tears,  or  as  Cooke  him- 
self expresses  it,  in  his  report  to  the  House,  "  was  much 
affected,"  the  emotion  was  profound :  for  on  all  sudden  emer- 
gencies Charles  displayed  an  almost  unparalleled  command 
over  the  exterior  violence  of  his  feelings. 

The  favourite  himself  sympathized  with  the  tender  joy  of 
his  royal  master ;  and,  before  the  king,  voluntarily  offered 

*  This  circumstance  is  mentioned  in  a  manuscript  letter;  what  Cooke 
declared  to  the  House  is  in  Rushworth,  vol.  i.  p.  525. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


397 


himself  as  a  peace-sacrifice.  In  his  speech  at  the  council- 
table,  he  entreats  the  king  that  he,  who  had  the  honour  to  be 
his  majesty's  favourite,  might  now  give  up  that  title  to 
them. — A  warm  genuine  feeling  probably  prompted  these 
words. 

"  To  open  my  heart,  please  to  pardon  me  a  word  more ;  I  must  confess  I 
have  long  lived  in  pain,  sleep  hath  given  me  no  rest,  favours  and  fortune  no 
content;  such  have  been  my  secret  sorrows,  to  be  thought  the  man  of  sep- 
aration, and  that  divided  the  king  from  his  people,  and  them  from  him; 
but  I  hope  it  shall  appear  they  were  some  mistaken  minds  that  would  have 
made  me  the  evil  spirit  that  walketh  between  a  good  master  and  a  loyal 
people."  * 

Buckingham  added,  that  for  the  good  of  his  country  he 
was  willing  to  sacrifice  his  honours ;  and  since  his  plurality 
of  offices  had  been  so  strongly  excepted  against,  that  he  was 
content  to  give  up  the  master  of  the  horse  to  Marquess 
Hamilton,  and  the  warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports  to  the  Earl 
of  Carlisle  ;  and  was  willing  that  the  parliament  should  ap- 
point another  admiral  for  all  services  at  sea. 

It  is  as  certain  as  human  evidence  can  authenticate,  that 
on  the  king's  side  all  was  grateful  affection  ;  and  that  on 
Buckingham's  there  was  a  most  earnest  desire  to  win  the 
favours  of  parliament ;  and  what  are  stronger  than  all  human 
evidence,  those  unerring  principles  in  human  nature  itself, 
which  are  the  secret  springs  of  the  heart,  were  working  in 
the  breasts  of  the  king  and  his  minister ;  for  neither  were 
tyrannical.  The  king  undoubtedly  sighed  to  meet  parliament 
with  the  love  which  he  had  at  first  professed  ;  he  declared, 
that  "  he  should  now  rejoice  to  meet  with  his  people  often." 
Charles  had  no  innate  tyranny  in  his  constitutional  character  : 
and  Buckingham  at  times  was  susceptible  of  misery  amidst  his 
greatness,  as  I  have  elsewhere  shown. f    It  could  not  have 

*  I  refer  the  critical  student  of  our  history  to  the  duke's  speech  at  the 
council-table  as  it  appears  in  Rushworth,  i.  525 :  but  what  I  add  respecting 
his  personal  sacrifices  is  from  manuscript  letters.  Sloane  MSS.  4177. 
Letter  490,  &c. 

f  Curiosities  of  Literature,  First  Series,  vol.  iii.  p.  438,  Ed.  1817;  vol.  v. 


398        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


been  imagined  that  the  luckless  favourite,  on  the  present  occa- 
sion, should  have  served  as  a  pretext  to  set  again  in  motion 
the  chaos  of  evil !  Can  any  candid  mind  suppose,  that  the 
king  or  the  duke  meditated  the  slightest  insult  on  the  patri- 
otic party,  or  would  in  the  least  have  disturbed  the  apparent 
reconciliation !  Yet  it  so  happened !  Secretary  Cooke,  at 
the  close  of  his  report  of  the  king's  acceptance  of  the  subsi- 
dies, mentioned  that  the  duke  had  fervently  beseeched  the 
king  to  grant  the  house  all  their  desires  !  Perhaps  the  men- 
tion of  the  duke's  name  was  designed  to  ingratiate  him  into 
their  toleration. 

Sir  John  Eliot  caught  fire  at  the  very  name  of  the  duke, 
and  vehemently  checked  the  secretary  for  having  dared  to 
introduce  it ;  declaring,  that  "  they  knew  of  no  other  distinc- 
tion but  of  king  and  subjects.  By  intermingling  a  subject's 
speech  with  the  king's  message,  he  seemed  to  derogate  from 
the  honour  and  majesty  of  a  king.  Nor  would  it  become 
any  subject  to  bear  himself  in  such  a  fashion,  as  if  no  grace 
ought  to  descend  from  the  king  to  the  people,  nor  any  loyalty 
ascend  from  the  people  to  the  king,  but  through  him  only." 

This  speech  was  received  by  many  with  acclamations  ;  some 
cried  out,  "  Well  spoken,  Sir  John  Eliot !  "  *  It  marks  the 
heated  state  of  the  political  atmosphere,  where  even  the 
lightest  coruscation  of  a  hated  name  made  it  burst  into 
flames  ! 

I  have  often  suspected  that  Sir  John  Eliot,  by  his  vehement 
personality,  must  have  borne  a  personal  antipathy  to  Buck- 
ingham. I  have  never  been  enabled  to  ascertain  the  fact ; 
but  I  find  that  he  has  left  in  manuscript  a  collection  of  sa- 
tires, or  "  Verses,  being  chiefly  invectives  against  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  to  whom  he  bore  a  bitter  and  most  inveterate 

p.  277,  Ed.  1823;  vol.  iii.  p.  429,  Ed.  1824;  vol.  iv.  p.  148,  Ed.  1834;  p.  301, 
Ed.  1840,  or  vol.  iii.  p.  97,  of  this  edition. 

*  I  find  this  speech,  and  an  account  of  its  reception  in  manuscript  let- 
ters ;  the  fragment  in  Rush  worth  contains  no  part  of  it.  I.  526.  Sloane 
MSS.  4177.    Letter  490,  &c. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


309 


enmity."  Could  we  sometimes  discover  the  motives  of  those 
who  first  head  political  revolutions,  we  should  find  liow 
greatly  personal  hatreds  have  actuated  them  in  deeds  which 
have  come  down  to  us  in  the  form  of  patriotism,  and  how 
often  the  revolutionary  spirit  disguises  its  private  passions  by 
its  public  conduct.* 

But  the  supplies,  which  had  raised  tears  from  the  fervent 
gratitude  of  Charles,  though  voted,  were  yet  withheld.  They 
resolved  that  grievances  and  supplies  go  hand  in  hand.  The 
commons  entered  deeply  into  constitutional  points  of  the 
highest  magnitude.  The  curious  erudition  of  Selden  and 
Coke  was  combined  with  the  ardour  of  patriots  who  merit  no 
inferior  celebrity,  though  not  having  consecrated  their  names 
by  their  laborious  literature,  we  only  discover  them  in  the 
obscure  annals  of  parliament.  To  our  history,  composed  by 
writers  of  different  principles,  I  refer  the  reader  for  the  argu- 
ments of  lawyers,  and  the  spirit  of  the  commons.  My  secret 
history  is  only  its  supplement. 

The  king's  prerogative,  and  the  subject's  liberty,  were 

*  Modern  history  would  afford  more  instances  than  perhaps  some  of  us 
suspect.  I  cannot  pass  over  an  illustration  of  my  principle,  which  I  shall 
take  from  two  very  notorious  politicians — Wat  Tyler  and  Sir  William  Wal- 
worth ! 

Wat,  when  in  servitude,  had  been  beaten  by  his  master,  Richard  Lyons, 
a  great  merchant  of  wines,  and  a  sheriff  of  London.  This  chastisement, 
working  on  an  evil  disposition,  appears  never  to  have  been  forgiven ;  and 
when  this  Radical  assumed  his  short-lived  dominion,  he  had  his  old  master 
beheaded,  and  his  head  carried  before  him  on  the  point  of  a  spear !  So 
Grafton  tells  us,  to  the  eternal  obloquy  of  this  arch-jacobin,  who  "  was  a 
crafty  fellow,  and  of  an  excellent  wit,  but  wanting  grace."  I  would  not 
sully  the  patriotic  blow  which  ended  the  rebellion  with  the  rebel ;  yet 
there  are  secrets  in  history!  Sir  William  Walworth,  " the  ever  famous 
mayor  of  London,"  as  Stowe  designates  him,  has  left  the  immortality  of 
his  name  to  one  of  our  suburbs;  but  having  discovered  in  Stowe's  survey, 
that  Walworth  was  the  landlord  of  the  stews  on  the  Bank-side,  which  he 
farmed  out  to  the  Dutch  vrows,  and  which  Wat  had  pulled  down,  I  am  in- 
clined to  suspect  that  private  feeling  first  knocked  down  the  saucy  ribald 
and  then  thrust  him  through  and  through  with  his  dagger ;  and  that  there 
was  as  much  of  personal  vengeance  as  patriotism,  which  crushed  the  de- 
molisher  of  so  much  valuable  property ! 


400        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


points  hard  to  distinguish,  and  were  established  but  by  con- 
test. Sometimes  the  king  imagined  that  "  the  house  pressed 
not  upon  the  abuses  of  power,  but  only  upon  power  itself." 
Sometimes  the  commons  doubted  whether  they  had  any  thing 
of  their  own  to  give  ;  while  their  property  and  their  persons 
seemed  equally  insecure.  Despotism  seemed  to  stand  on  one 
side,  and  Faction  on  the  other — Liberty  trembled ! 

The  conference  of  the  commons  before  the  lords,  on  the 
freedom  and  person  of  the  subject,  was  admirably  conducted 
by  Selden  and  by  Coke.  When  the  king's  attorney  affected 
to  slight  the  learned  arguments  and  precedents,  pretending  to 
consider  them  as  mutilated  out  of  the  records,  and  as  proving 
rather  against  the  commons  than  for  them,  Sir  Edward  Coke 
rose,  affirming  to  the  house,  upon  his  skill  in  the  law,  that  "  it 
lay  not  under  Mr.  Attorney's  cap  to  answer  any  one  of  their 
arguments."  Selden  declared  that  he  had  written  out  all  the 
records  from  the  Tower,  the  Exchequer,  and  the  King's 
Bench,  with  his  own  hand ;  and  "  would  engage  his  head, 
Mr.  Attorney  should  not  find  in  all  these  archives  a  single 
precedent  omitted."  Mr.  Littleton  said,  that  he  had  examined 
every  one  syllabatim,  and  whoever  said  they  were  mutilated 
spoke  false  !  Of  so  ambiguous  and  delicate  a  nature  was  then 
the  liberty  of  the  subject,  that  it  seems  they  considered  it  to 
depend  on  precedents  ! 

A  startling  message,  on  the  12th  of  April,  was  sent  by  the 
king,  for  dispatch  of  business.  The  house,  struck  with  as- 
tonishment, desired  to  have  it  repeated.  They  remained  sad 
and  silent.  No  one  cared  to  open  the  debate.  A  whimsical 
politician,  Sir  Francis  Nethersole,*  suddenly  started  up,  en- 
treating leave  to  tell  his  last  night's  dream.    Some  laughing 

*  I  have  formed  my  idea  of  Sir  Francis  Nethersole  from  some  strange 
incidents  in  his  political  conduct,  which  I  have  read  in  some  contemporary 
letters.  He  was,  however,  a  man  of  some  eminence,  had  been  Orator  for 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  agent  for  James  I.  with  the  Princes  of  the 
Union  in  Germany,  and  also  Secretary  to  the  Queen  of  Bohemia.  He 
founded  and  endowed  a  free-school  at  Polesworth  in  Warwickshire. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


401 


at  him,  he  observed,  that  "kingdoms  had  been  saved  by 
dreams  !  "  Allowed  to  proceed,  he  said,  "  he  saw  two  good 
pastures  ;  a  flock  of  sheep  was  in  the  one,  and  a  bell-wether 
alone  in  the  other ;  a  great  ditch  was  between  them,  and  a 
narrow  bridge  over  the  ditch." 

He  was  interrupted  by  the  speaker,  who  told  him  that  it 
stood  not  with  the  gravity  of  the  house  to  listen  to  dreams  ; 
but  the  house  was  inclined  to  hear  him  out. 

"  The  sheep  would  sometimes  go  over  to  the  bell-wether,  or 
the  bell-wether  to  the  sheep.  Once  both  met  on  the  narrow 
bridge,  and  the  question  was  who  should  go  back,  since  both 
could  not  go  on  without  danger.  One  sheep  gave  counsel 
that  the  sheep  on  the  bridge  should  he  on  their  bellies,  and 
let  the  bell-wether  go  over  their  backs.  The  application  of 
this  dilemma  he  left  to  the  house."  *  It  must  be  confessed 
that  the  bearing  of  the  point  was  more  ambiguous  than  some 
of  the  important  ones  that  formed  the  matters  of  their  debates. 
Davus  sum,  non  (Edipus !  It  is  probable  that  this  fantasti- 
cal politician  did  not  vote  with  the  opposition  ;  for  Eliot, 
Wentworth,  and  Coke,  protested  against  the  interpretation 
of  dreams  in  the  house ! 

When  the  attorney-general  moved  that  the  liberties  of  the 
subject  might  be  moderated,  to  reconcile  the  differences 
between  themselves  and  the  sovereign,  Sir  Edward  Coke 
observed,  that  "  the  true  mother  would  never  consent  to  the 
dividing  of  her  child."  On  this,  Buckingham  swore  that 
Coke  intimated  that  the  king,  his  master,  was  the  prostitute 
of  the  state.  Coke  protested  against  the  misinterpretation. 
The  dream  of  Nethersole,  and  the  metaphor  of  Coke,  were 
alike  dangerous  in  parliamentary  discussion. 

In  a  manuscript  letter  it  is  said  that  the  house  of  commons 
sat  four  days  without  speaking  or  doing  any  thing.  On  the 
first  of  May,  Secretary  Cooke  delivered  a  message,  asking 
whether  they  would  rely  upon  the  king's  word  ?  This  ques- 
tion was  followed  by  a  long  silence.    Several  speeches  are 

*  Manuscript  letter. 
vol.  iv.  26 


402        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


reported  in  the  letters  of  the  times,  which  are  not  in  Ru«h- 
worth.  Sir  Nathaniel  Rich  observed,  that  "  confident  as  he 
was  of  the  royal  word,  what  did  any  indefinite  word  ascer- 
tain ?  "  Pym  said,  "  We  have  his  majesty's  coronation  oath 
to  maintain  the  laws  of  England ;  what  need  we  then  take 
his  word?"  He  proposed  to  move  "Whether  we  should 
take  the  king's  word  or  no."  This  was  resisted  by  Secretary 
Cooke  ;  "  What  would  they  say  in  foreign  parts,  if  the  people 
of  England  would  not  trust  their  king  ?  "  He  desired  the 
house  to  call  Pym  to  order  ;  on  which  Pym  replied,  "  Truly, 
Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  just  of  the  same  opinion  I  was  ;  viz :  that 
the  king's  oath  was  as  powerful  as  his  word."  Sir  John 
Eliot  moved  that  it  be  put  to  the  question,  "  because  they 
that  would  have  it,  do  urge  us  to  that  point."  Sir  Edward 
Coke  on  this  occasion  made  a  memorable  speech,  of  which 
the  following  passage  is  not  given  in  Rushworth : — 

"  We  sit  now  in  parliament,  and  therefore  must  take  his  majesty's  word 
no  otherwise  than  in  a  parliamentary  way  ;  that  is,  of  a  matter  agreed  on  by 
both  houses — his  majesty  sitting  on  his  throne  in  his  robes,  with  his  crown 
on  his  head,  and  sceptre  in  his  hand,  and  in  full  parliament ;  and  his  royal 
assent  being  entered  upon  record,  in  perpetuam  ret  memoriam.  This  was 
the  royal  word  of  a  king  in  parliament,  and  not  a  word  delivered  in  a  cham- 
ber, and  out  of  the  mouth  of  a  secretary  at  the  second  hand ;  therefore  I 
motion,  that  the  House  of  Commons,  more  majorum,  should  draw  up  a  pe- 
tition de  droict,  to  his  majesty ;  which,  being  confirmed  by  both  houses, 
and  assented  unto  by  his  majesty,  will  be  as  firm  an  act  as  any.  Not  that 
I  distrust  the  king,  but  that  I  cannot  take  his  trust  but  in  a  parliamentary 
way."  * 

In  this  speech  of  Sir  Edward  Coke  we  find  the  first  men- 
tion, in  the  legal  style,  of  the  ever-memorable  "  Petition  of 
Right,"  which  two  days  after  was  finished.  The  reader  must 
pursue  its  history  among  the  writers  of  opposite  parties. 

On  Tuesday,  June  5,  a  royal  message  announced,  that  on 
the  11th  the  present  sessions  would  close.  This  utterly  dis- 
concerted the  commons.    Religious  men  considered  it  as  a 

*  These  speeches  are  entirely  drawn  from  those  manuscript  letters  to 
which  I  have  frequently  referred.  Coke's  may  be  substantially  found  in 
Rushworth,  but  without  a  single  expression  as  here  given. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


403 


judicial  visitation  for  the  sins  of  the  people ;  others  raged 
with  suppressed  feelings ;  they  counted  up  all  the  disasters 
which  had  of  late  occurred,  all  which  were  charged  to  one 
man  :  they  knew  not,  at  a  moment  so  urgent,  when  all  their 
liberties  seemed  at  stake,  whether  the  commons  should  fly  to 
the  lords,  or  to  the  king.  Sir  John  Eliot  said,  that  as  they 
intended  to  furnish  his  majesty  with  money,  it  was  proper 
that  he  should  give  them  time  to  supply  him  with  counsel : 
he  was  renewing  his  old  attacks  on  the  duke,  when  he  was 
suddenly  interrupted  by  the  speaker,  who,  starting  from  the 
chair,  declared,  that  he  was  commanded  not  to  suffer  him  to 
proceed  ;  Eliot  sat  down  in  sullen  silence.  On  Wednesday, 
Sir  Edward  Coke  broke  the  ice  of  debate.  u  That  man," 
said  he  of  the  duke,  "  is  the  grievance  of  grievances  !  As 
for  going  to  the  lords,"  he  added,  "  that  is  not  via  regia  ;  our 
liberties  are  impeached — it  is  our  concern  !  " 

On  Thursday,  the  vehement  cry  of  Coke  against  Bucking- 
ham was  followed  up  ;  as,  says  a  letter-writer,  when  one 
good  hound  recovers  the  scent,  the  rest  come  in  with  a  full 
cry.  A  sudden  message  from  the  king  absolutely  forbade 
them  to  asperse  any  of  his  majesty's  ministers,  otherwise  his 
majesty  would  instantly  dissolve  them. 

This  fell  like  a  thunderbolt ;  it  struck  terror  and  alarm ; 
and  at  the  instant,  the  house  of  commons  was  changed  into  a 
scene  of  tragical  melancholy  !  All  the  opposite  passions  of 
human  nature — all  the  national  evils  which  were  one  day  to 
burst  on  the  country,  seemed,  on  a  sudden,  concentrated  in 
this  single  spot !  Some  were  seen  weeping,  some  were  expos- 
tulating, and  some,  in  awful  prophecy,  were  contemplating 
the  future  ruin  of  the  kingdom  ;  while  others,  of  more  ardent 
daring,  were  reproaching  the  timid,  quieting  the  terrified,  and 
infusing  resolution  into  the  despairing.  Many  attempted  to 
speak,  but  were  so  strongly  affected,  that  their  very  utter- 
ance failed  them.  The  venerable  Coke,  overcome  by  his  feel- 
ings when  he  rose  to  speak,  found  his  learned  eloquence  falter 
on  his  tongue  ;  he  sat  down,  and  tears  were  seen  on  his  aged 


404       SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 

cheeks.  The  name  of  the  public  enemy  of  the  kingdom  was 
repeated,  till  the  speaker,  with  tears  covering  his  face,  de- 
clared he  could  no  longer  witness  such  a  spectacle  of  woe  in 
the  commons  of  England,  and  requested  leave  of  absence  for 
half  an  hour.  The  speaker  hastened  to  the  king,  to  inform 
him  of  the  state  of  the  house.  They  were  preparing  a  vote 
against  the  duke,  for  being  an  arch-traitor  and  arch-enemy  to 
king  and  kingdom,  and  were  busied  on  their  "  Remonstrance," 
when  the  speaker,  on  his  return,  after  an  absence  of  two 
hours,  delivered  his  majesty's  message,  that  they  should  ad- 
journ till  the  next  day. 

This  was  an  awful  interval  of  time  ;  many  trembled  for  the 
issue  of  the  next  morning :  one  letter- writer  calls  it,  "  that 
black  and  doleful  Thursday ! "  and  another,  writing  before 
the  house  met,  observes,  "  What  we  shall  expect  this  morn- 
ing, God  of  heaven  knows  ;  we  shall  meet  timely."  * 

Charles  probably  had  been  greatly  affected  by  the  report 
of  the  speaker,  on  the  extraordinary  state  into  which  the  whole 
house  had  been  thrown  ;  for  on  Friday  the  royal  message 
imported,  that  the  king  had  never  any  intention  of  "  barring 
them  from  their  right,  but  only  to  avoid  scandal,  that  his 
ministers  should  not  be  accused  for  their  counsel  to  him ;  and 
still  he  hoped  that  all  Christendom  might  notice  a  sweet  part- 
ing between  him  and  his  people.  This  message  quieted  the 
house,  but  did  not  suspend  their  preparations  for  a  "  Remon- 
strance," which  they  had  begun  on  the  day  they  were  threat- 
ened with  a  dissolution. 

On  Saturday,  while  they  were  still  occupied  on  the  "  Re- 
monstrance," unexpectedly,  at  four  o'clock,  the  king  came  to 
parliament,  and  the  commons  were  called  up.  Charles 
spontaneously  came  to  reconcile  himself  to  parliament.  The 
king  now  gave  his  second  answer  to  the  "  Petition  of  Right." 
He  said,  "  My  maxim  is,  that  the  people's  liberties  strengthen 
the  king's  prerogative ;  and  the  king's  prerogative  is  to  de- 
fend the  people's  liberties.  Read  your  petition,  and  you  shall 
*  This  last  letter  is  printed  in  Rushworth,  vol.  i.  p.  609. 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


405 


have  an  answer  that  I  am  sure  will  please  you."  *  They 
desired  to  have  the  ancient  form  of  their  ancestors,  "  Soit 
droit  fait  come  il  est  desyre,"  and  not  as  the  king  had  before 
given  it,  with  any  observation  on  it.  Charles  now  granted 
this ;  declaring  that  his  second  answer  to  the  petition  in 
nowise  differed  from  his  first ;  "  but  you  now  see  how  ready 
I  have  shown  myself  to  satisfy  your  demands  ;  I  have  done 
my  part ;  wherefore,  if  this  parliament  have  not  a  happy  con- 
clusion, the  sin  is  yours, — I  am  free  from  it !  " 

Popular  gratitude  is,  at  least,  as  vociferous  as  it  is  sudden. 
Both  houses  returned  the  king  acclamations  of  joy  ;  every 
one  seemed  to  exult  at  the  happy  change  which  a  few  days 
had  effected  in  the  fate  of  the  kingdom.  Everywhere  the 
bells  rung,  bonfires  were  kindled,  an  universal  holiday  was 
kept  through  the  town,  and  spread  to  the  country  :  but  an 
ominous  circumstance  has  been  registered  by  a  letter-writer  ; 
the  common  people,  who  had  caught  the  contagious  happiness, 
imagined  that  all  this  public  joy  was  occasioned  by  the  king's 
consenting  to  commit  the  duke  to  the  Tower ! 

Charles  has  been  censured,  even  by  Hume,  for  his  "  eva- 
sions and  delays,"  in  granting  his  assent  to  the  "  Petition  of 
Right ;  "  but  now,  either  the  parliament  had  conquered  the 
royal  unwillingness,  or  the  king  was  zealously  inclined  on 
reconciliation.  Yet  the  joy  of  the  commons  did  not  outlast 
the  bonfires  in  the  streets  ;  they  resumed  their  debates  as  if 
they  had  never  before  touched  on  the  subjects  :  they  did  not 
account  for  the  feelings  of  the  man  whom  they  addressed  as 
the  sovereign.  They  sent  up  a  "  Remonstrance  "  against  the 
duke,  f  and  introduced  his  mother  into  it,  as  a  patroness  of 
popery.  Charles  declared,  that  after  having  granted  the 
famous  "  Petition,"  he  had  not  expected  such  a  return  as  this 
"  Remonstrance."  "  How  acceptable  it  is,"  he  afterwards 
said,  "  every  man  may  judge ;  no  wise  man  can  justify  it." 
After  the  reading  of  the  Remonstrance,  the  duke  fell  on  his 

*  The  king's  answer  is  in  Rushworth,  vol.  i.  p.  613. 

t  This  eloquent  state  paper  is  in  Rushworth,  vol.  i.  p.  619. 


406        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST. 


knees,  desiring  to  answer  for  himself ;  but  Charles  no  way 
relaxed  in  showing  his  personal  favour.* 

The  duke  was  often  charged  with  actions  and  with  expres- 
sions of  which,  unquestionably,  he  was  not  always  guilty ; 
and  we  can  more  fairly  decide  on  some  points,  relating  to 
Charles  and  the  favourite,  for  we  have  a  clearer  notion  of  them 
than  his  contemporaries.  The  active  spirits  in  the  commons 
were  resolved  to  hunt  down  the  game  to  the  death ;  for  they 
now  struck  at,  as  the  king  calls  it,  "  one  of  the  chief  mainte- 
nances of  my  crown,"  in  tonnage  and  poundage,  the  levying 
of  which,  they  now  declared,  was  a  violation  of  the  liberties 
of  the  people.  This  subject  again  involved  legal  discussions, 
and  another  "  Remonstrance."  They  were  in  the  act  of  read- 
ing it,  when  the  king  suddenly  came  down  to  the  house,  sent 
for  the  speaker,  and  prorogued  the  parliament.  "  I  am  forced 
to  end  this  session,"  said  Charles,  "  some  few  hours  before  I 
meant,  being  not  willing  to  receive  any  more  Remonstrances, 
to  which  I  must  give  a  harsh  answer."  There  was,  at  least, 
as  much  of  sorrow  as  of  anger,  in  this  closing  speech. 

Buckingham  once  more  was  to  offer  his  life  for  the  honour 
of  his  master — and  to  court  popularity !  It  is  well  known 
with  what  exterior  fortitude  Charles  received  the  news  of  the 
duke's  assassination  ;  this  imperturbable  majesty  of  his  mind — 
insensibility  it  was  not — never  deserted  him  on  many  similar 
occasions.  There  was  no  indecision — no  feebleness  in  his 
conduct  ;  and  that  extraordinary  event  was  not  suffered  to 
delay  the  expedition.  The  king's  personal  industry  astonished 
all  the  men  in  office.  One  writes,  that  the  king  had  done 
more  in  six  weeks  than  in  the  duke's  time  had  been  done  in 
six  months.  The  death  of  Buckingham  caused  no  change ; 
the  king  left  every  man  to  his  own  charge,  but  took  the  gen- 
eral direction  into  his  own  hands.f  In  private,  Charles 
deeply  mourned  the  loss  of  Buckingham ;  he  gave  no  en- 

*  This  interview  is  taken  from  manuscript  letters, 
f  Manuscript  Letters:  Lord  Dorset  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle. — Sloane 
MSS.  4178,  Letter  519. 


AND  EIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


407 


20uragement  to  his  enemies :  the  king  called  him  "  his  mar- 
tyr," and  declared,  "  the  world  was  greatly  mistaken  in  him  ; 
for  it  was  thought  that  the  favourite  had  ruled  his  majesty 
but  it  was  far  otherwise ;  for  that  the  duke  had  been  to  him 
a  faithful  and  an  obedient  servant."  *  Such  were  the  feel- 
ings and  ideas  of  the  unfortunate  Charles  the  First,  which  it 
is  necessary  to  become  acquainted  with  to  judge  of ;  few  have 
possessed  the  leisure  or  the  disposition  to  perform  this  his- 
torical duty,  involved  as  it  is  in  the  history  of  our  passions. 
If  ever  the  man  shall  be  viewed,  as  well  as  the  monarch,  the 
private  history  of  Charles  the  First  will  form  one  of  the  most 
pathetic  of  biographies. f 

All  the  foreign  expeditions  of  Charles  the  First  were  alike 
disastrous  :  the  vast  genius  of  Richelieu,  at  its  meridian,  had 
paled  our  ineffectual  star !  The  dreadful  surrender  of  Ro- 
chelle  had  sent  back  our  army  and  navy  baffled  and  dis- 
graced ;  and  Buckingham  had  timely  perished,  to  save  one 
more  reproach,  one  more  political  crime,  attached  to  his 
name.  Such  failures  did  not  improve  the  temper  of  the 
times  ;  but  the  most  brilliant  victory  would  not  have  changed 
the  fate  of  Charles,  nor  allayed  the  fiery  spirits  in  the  com- 
mons, who,  as  Charles  said,  "  not  satisfied  in  hearing  complain- 
ers,  had  erected  themselves  into  inquisitors  after  complaints." 

Parliament  met.  The  king's  speech  was  conciliatory. 
He  acknowledged  that  the  exaction  of  the  duties  of  the  cus- 
toms was  not  a  right  which  he  derived  from  his  hereditary 
prerogative,  but  one  which  he  enjoyed  as  the  gift  of  his 
people.  These  duties  as  yet  had  not  indeed  been  formally 
confirmed  by  parliament,  but  they  had  never  been  refused  to 
the  sovereign.  The  king  closed  with  a  fervent  ejaculation 
that  the  session,  begun  with  confidence,  might  end  with  a 
mutual  good  understanding. 
*  Manuscript  Letter. 

t  I  have  already  given  the  "  Secret  history  of  Charles  the  First  and  his 
Queen,"  where  I  have  traced  the  firmness  and  independence  of  his  char- 
acter. In  another  article  will  be  found  as  much  of  the  "  Secret  History  of 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  "  as  I  have  been  enabled  to  acquire. 


408        SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


The  shade  of  Buckingham  was  no  longer  cast  between 
Charles  the  First  and  the  commons.  And  yet  we  find  that 
"  their  dread  and  dear  sovereign "  was  not  allowed  any  re- 
pose on  the  throne. 

A  new  demon  of  national  discord,  Religion  in  a  metaphy- 
sical garb,  reared  its  distracted  head.  This  evil  spirit  had 
been  raised  by  the  conduct  of  the  court  divines,  whose  politi- 
cal sermons,  with  their  attempts  to  return  to  the  more  solemn 
ceremonies  of  the  Romish  church,  alarmed  some  tender  con- 
sciences ;  it  served  as  a  masked  battery  for  the  patriotic  party 
to  change  their  ground  at  will,  without  slackening  their  fire. 
When  the  king  urged  for  the  duties  of  his  customs,  he  found 
that  he  was  addressing  a  committee  sitting  for  religion.  Sir 
John  Eliot  threw  out  a  singular  expression.  Alluding  to 
some  of  the  bishops,  whom  he  called  "  masters  of  ceremo- 
nies," he  confessed  that  some  ceremonies  were  commendable, 
such  as  "  that  we  should  stand  up  at  the  repetition  of  the 
creed,  to  testify  the  resolution  of  our  hearts  to  defend  the 
religion  we  profess,  and  in  some  churches  they  did  not  only 
stand  upright  but  with  their  swords  drawn."  His  speech 
was  a  spark  that  fell  into  a  well-laid  train ;  scarcely  can  we 
conceive  the  enthusiastic  temper  of  the  house  of  commons,  at 
that  moment,  when,  after  some  debate,  they  entered  into  a 
vow  to  preserve  "  the  articles  of  religion  established  by  par- 
liament, in  the  thirteenth  year  of  our  late  Queen  Elizabeth  !  99 
and  this  vow  was  immediately  followed  up  by  a  petition  to 
the  king  for  a  fast  for  the  increasing  miseries  of  the  reformed 
churches  abroad.  Parliaments  are  liable  to  have  their  pas- 
sions !  Some  of  these  enthusiasts  were  struck  by  a  panic, 
not  perhaps  warranted  by  the  danger,  of  "  Jesuits  and  Armi- 
nians."  The  king  answered  them  in  good  humour ;  observ- 
ing, however,  on  the  state  of  the  reformed  abroad,  "  that 
fighting  would  do  them  more  good  than  fasting."  He  granted 
them  their  fast,  but  they  would  now  grant  no  return  ;  for  now 
they  presented  "  a  Declaration  "  to  the  king,  that  tonnage  and 
poundage  must  give  precedency  to  religion !    The  king's 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


409 


answer  still  betrays  no  ill  temper.  He  confessed  that  he  did 
not  think  that  "  religion  was  in  so  much  danger  as  they 
affirmed."  He  reminds  them  of  tonnage  and  poundage  ;  "  I 
do  not  so  much  desire  it  out  of  greediness  of  the  thing,  as  out 
of  a  desire  to  put  an  end  to  those  questions  that  arise  be- 
tween me  and  some  of  my  subjects." 

Never  had  the  king  been  more  moderate  in  his  claims,  or 
more  tender  in  his  style ;  and  never  had  the  commons  been 
more  fierce,  and  never,  in  truth,  so  utterly  inexorable  !  Often 
kings  are  tyrannical,  and  sometimes  are  parliaments  !  A 
body  corporate,  with  the  infection  of  passion,  may  perform 
acts  of  injustice  equally  with  the  individual  who  abuses  the 
power  with  which  he  is  invested.  It  was  insisted  that 
Charles  should  give  up  the  receivers  of  the  customs,  who 
were  denounced  as  capital  enemies  to  the  king  and  kingdom ; 
while  those  who  submitted  to  the  duties,  were  declared  guilty 
as  accessories.  When  Sir  John  Eliot  was  pouring  forth  in- 
vectives against  some  courtiers — however  they  may  have 
merited  the  blast  of  his  eloquence — he  was  sometimes  inter- 
rupted and  sometimes  cheered,  for  the  stinging  personal- 
ities. The  timid  Speaker  refusing  to  put  the  question, 
suffered  a  severe  reprimand  from  Selden :  "  If  you  will  not 
put  it,  we  must  sit  still,  and  thus  we  shall  never  be  able 
to  do  any  thing ! "  The  house  adjourned  in  great  heat ;  the 
dark  prognostic  of  their  next  meeting,  which  Sir  Symonds 
d'Ewes  has  remarked  in  his  Diary  as  "  the  most  gloomy,  sad, 
and  dismal  day  for  England  that  happened  for  five  hundred 
years ! " 

On  this  fatal  day,*  the  Speaker  still  refusing  to  put  the 
question,  and  announcing  the  king's  command  for  an  adjourn- 
ment, Sir  John  Eliot  stood  up  !  The  Speaker  attempted  to 
leave  the  chair,  but  two  members,  who  had  placed  themselves 
on  each  side,  forcibly  kept  him  down — Eliot,  who  had  pre- 
pared "a  short  declaration,"  flung  down  a  paper  on  the  floor, 
crying  out  that  it  might  be  read  !  His  party  vociferated  for 
*  Monday,  2d  of  March,  1629. 


410         SECRET  HISTORY  OF  CHARLES  THE  FIRST 


the  reading — others  that  it  should  not.  A  sudden  tumult 
broke  out ;  Coriton,  a  fervent  patriot,  struck  another  member, 
and  many  laid  their  hands  on  their  swords.*  "  Shall  we," 
said  one,  "  be  sent  home  as  we  were  last  sessions,  turned  off 
like  scattered  sheep?"  The  weeping,  trembling  Speaker, 
still  persisting  in  what  he  held  to  be  his  duty,  was  dragged  to 
and  fro  by  opposite  parties;  but  neither  he  nor  the  clerk 
would  read  the  paper,  though  the  Speaker  was  bitterly  re- 
proached by  his  kinsman,  Sir  Peter  Hayman,  "  as  the  dis- 
grace of  his  country,  and  a  blot  to  a  noble  family."  Eliot, 
finding  the  house  so  strongly  divided,  undauntedly  snatching 
up  the  paper,  said,  "  I  shall  then  express  that  by  my  tongue 
which  this  paper  should  have  done."  Denzil  Holies  assumed 
the  character  of  Speaker,  putting  the  question :  it  was  re- 
turned by  the  acclamations  of  the  party.  The  doors  were 
locked  and  the  keys  laid  on  the  table.  The  king  sent  for  the 
Serjeant  and  mace,  but  the  messenger  could  obtain  no  admit- 
tance— the  usher  of  the  black-rod  met  no  more  regard.  The 
king  then  ordered  out  his  guard — in  the  meanwhile  the  pro- 
test was  completed.  The  door  was  flung  open,  the  rush  of 
the  members  was  so  impetuous  that  the  crowd  carried  away 
among  them  the  Serjeant  and  the  usher,  in  the  confusion  and 
riot.  Many  of  the  members  were  struck  by  horror  amidst 
this  conflict,  it  was  a  sad  image  of  the  future !  Several  of 
the  patriots  were  committed  to  the  Tower.  The  king  on  dis- 
solving this  parliament,  which  was  the  last  till  the  memorable 
"  Long  Parliament,"  gives  us,  at  least,  his  idea  of  it : — "  It  is 
far  from  me  to  judge  all  the  House  alike  guilty,  for  there  are 
there  as  dutiful  subjects  as  any  in  the  world ;  it  being  but 
some  few  vipers  among  them  that  did  cast  this  mist  of  undu- 
tifulness  over  most  of  their  eyes."  f 

*  It  was  imagined  out  of  doors  that  swords  had  been  drawn ;  for  a  Welsh 
page  running  in  great  haste,  when  he  heard  the  noise,  to  the  door,  cried 
out,  "  I  pray  you  let  hur  in!  let  hur  in!  to  give  hur  master  his  sword !  " 
— Manuscript  Letter. 

t  At  the  time  many  undoubtedly  considered  that  it  was  a  mere  faction 
in  the  house.    Sir  Symonds  d'Ewes  was  certainly  no  politician — but,  un- 


AND  HIS  FIRST  PARLIAMENTS. 


411 


Thus  have  I  traced,  step  by  step,  the  secret  history  of 
Charles  the  First  and  his  early  Parliaments.  I  have  entered 
into  their  feelings,  while  I  have  supplied  new  facts,  to  make 
every  thing  as  present  and  as  true  as  my  faithful  diligence 
could  repeat  the  tale.  It  was  necessary  that  I  should  some- 
times judge  of  the  first  race  of  our  patriots  as  some  of  their 
contemporaries  did ;  but  it  was  impossible  to  avoid  correcting 
these  notions  by  the  more  enlarged  views  of  their  posterity. 
This  is  the  privilege  of  an  historian  and  the  philosophy  of  his 
art.  There  is  no  apology  for  the  king,  nor  any  declamation 
for  the  subject.  Were  we  only  to  decide  by  the  final  results  of 
this  great  conflict,  of  which  what  we  have  here  narrated  is  but 
the  faint  beginning,  we  should  confess  that  Sir  John  Eliot 
and  his  party  were  the  first  fathers  of  our  political  existence ; 
and  we  should  not  withhold  from  them  the  inexpressible  grat- 
itude of  a  nation's  freedom  !  But  human  infirmity  mortifies 
us  in  the  noblest  pursuits  of  man ;  and  we  must  be  taught 
this  penitential  and  chastising  wisdom.  The  story  of  our 
patriots  is  involved ;  Charles  appears  to  have  been  lowering 
those  high  notions  of  his  prerogative,  which  were  not  peculiar 
to  him,  and  was  throwing  himself  on  the  bosom  of  his  people. 
The  severe  and  unrelenting  conduct  of  Sir  John  Eliot,  his 
prompt  eloquence  and  bold  invective,  well  fitted  him  for  the 
leader  of  a  party.  He  was  the  lodestone,  drawing  together 
the  looser  particles  of  iron.  Never  sparing,  in  the  monarch, 
the  errors  of  the  man,  never  relinquishing  his  royal  prey, 
which  he  had  fastened  on,  Eliot,  with  Dr.  Turner  and  some 
others,  contributed  to  make  Charles  disgusted  with  all  parlia- 
ments. Without  any  dangerous  concessions,  there  was  more 
than  one  moment  when  they  might  have  reconciled  the  sov- 

questionably,  his  ideas  were  not  peculiar  to  himself.  Of  the  last  third 
parliament  he  delivers  this  opinion  in  his  Diary:  "  I  cannot  deem  but  the 
greater  part  of  the  house  were  morally  honest  men ;  but  these  were  the 
least  guilty  of  the  fatal  breach,  being  only  misled  by  some  other  Machiavelian 
politics,  who  seemed  zealous  for  the  liberty  of  the  commonivealth,  and  by  that 
means,  in  the  moving  of  their  outward  freedom,  drew  the  votes  of  those 
good  men  to  their  side." 


412 


THE  RUMP. 


ereign  to  themselves,  and  not  have  driven  him  to  the  fatal 
resource  of  attempting  to  reign  without  a  parliament !  * 


THE  RUMP. 

Text  and  commentary !  The  French  Revolution  abounds 
with  wonderful  "explanatory  notes"  on  the  English.  It  has 
cleared  up  many  obscure  passages — and  in  the  political 
history  of  Man,  both  pages  must  be  read  together. 

The  opprobrious  and  ludicrous  nickname  of  "  the  Rump  " 
stigmatized  a  faction  which  played  the  same  part  in  the 
English  Revolution  as  the  "  Montagne  "  of  the  Jacobins  did 
in  the  French.  It  has  been  imagined  that  our  English 
Jacobins  were  impelled  by  a  principle  different  from  that  of 
their  modern  rivals ;  but  the  madness  of  avowed  atheism, 
and  the  frenzy  of  hypocritical  sanctity,  in  the  circle  of  crimes 
meet  at  the  same  point.  Their  history  forms  one  of  those 
useful  parallels  where,  with  truth  as  unerring  as  mathemati- 
cal demonstration,  we  discover  the  identity  of  human  nature. 
Similarity  of  situation,  and  certain  principles,  producing 
similar  personages  and  similar  events,  finally  settle  in  the 
same  results.  The  Rump,  as  long  as  human  nature  exists, 
can  be  nothing  but  the  Rump,  however  it  may  be  thrown 
uppermost. 

The  origin  of  this  political  by-name  has  often  been  inquired 
into ;  and  it  is  somewhat  curious,  that,  though  all  parties  con- 
sent to  reprobate  it,  each  assigns  for  it  a  different  allusion. 
In  the  history  of  political  factions  there  is  always  a  mixture 
of  the  ludicrous  with  the  tragic  ;  but,  except  their  modern 
brothers,  no  faction,  like  the  present,  ever  excited  such  a 
combination  of  extreme  contempt  and  extreme  horror. 

*  Since  the  publication  of  the  present  article,  I  have  composed  my 
M  Commentaries  on  the  Life  and  Reign  of  Charles  the  First,"  in  five  vol- 
umes. 


THE  RUMP. 


413 


Among  the  rival  parties  in  1G59,  the  loyalists  and  the 
presbyterians  acted,  as  we  may  suppose  the  Tories  and  the 
Whigs  would  in  the  same  predicament ;  a  secret  reconcilia- 
tion had  taken  place,  to  bury  in  oblivion  their  former  jeal- 
ousies, that  they  might  unite  to  rid  themselves  from  that 
tyranny  of  tyrannies,  a  hydra-headed  government ;  or,  as 
Hume  observes,  that  "  all  efforts  should  be  used  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  Rump ;  so  they  called  the  parliament,  in  allu- 
sion to  that  part  of  the  animal  body."  The  sarcasm  of  the 
allusion  seemed  obvious  to  our  polished  historian  ;  yet,  look- 
ing more  narrowly  for  its  origin,  we  shall  find  how  indistinct 
were  the  notions  of  this  nickname  among  those  who  lived 
nearer  to  the  times.  Evelyn  says,  that  "  the  Rump  parlia- 
ment was  so  called,  as  containing  some  few  rotten  members 
of  the  other."  Roger  Coke  describes  it  thus ;  "  You  must 
now  be  content  with  a  piece  of  the  Commons,  called '  the 
Rump.'"  And  Carte  calls  the  Rump,  "the  carcass  of  a 
House,"  and  seems  not  precisely  aware  of  the  contemptuous 
allusion.  But  how  do  "  rotten  members,"  and  "  a  carcass," 
agree  with  the  notion  of  "  a  Rump  ?  "  Recently  the  editor 
of  the  Life  of  Colonel  Hutchinson  has  conveyed  a  novel 
origin.  "  The  number  of  the  members  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment having  been  by  seclusion,  death,  &c.  very  much  re- 
duced,"— a  remarkable  &c.  this  !  by  which  our  editor  seems 
adroitly  to  throw  a  veil  over  the  forcible  transportation  by 
the  Ruinpers  of  two  hundred  members  at  one  swoop, — "  the 
remainder  was  compared  to  the  rump  of  a  fowl  which  was 
left,  all  the  rest  being  eaten."  Our  editor  even  considers  this 
to  be  "  a  coarse  emblem  ; "  yet  "  the  rump  of  a  fowl "  could 
hardly  offend  even  a  lady's  delicacy  !  Our  editor,  probably, 
was  somewhat  anxious  not  to  degrade  too  lowly  the  antimon- 
archical  party,  designated  by  this  opprobrious  term.  Per- 
haps it  is  pardonable  in  Mrs.  Macaulay,  an  historical  lady, 
and  a  "  Rumper,"  for  she  calls  the  "  Levellers  "  "  a  brave 
and  virtuous  party,"  to  have  passed  over  in  her  history  any 
mention  of  the  offensive  term  at  all,  as  well  as  the  ridiculous 


414 


THE  RUMP. 


catastrophe  which  they  underwent  in  the  political  revolution, 
which  however  we  must  beg  leave  not  to  pass  by. 

This  party-coinage  has  been  ascribed  to  Clement  "Walker, 
their  bitter  antagonist;  who,  having  sacrificed  no  inconsider- 
able fortune  to  the  cause  of  what  he  considered  constitu- 
tional liberty,  was  one  of  the  violent  ejected  members  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  and  perished  in  prison,  a  victim  to  honest 
unbending  principles.  His  "  History  of  Independency  "  is  a 
rich  legacy  bequeathed  to  posterity,  of  all  their  great  mis- 
doings, and  their  petty  villainies,  and,  above  all,  of  their 
secret  history.  One  likes  to  know  of  what  blocks  the  idols 
of  the  people  are  sometimes  carved  out. 

Clement  Walker  notices  "  the  votes  and  acts  of  this  fag 
end;  this  rump  of  a  parliament,  with  corrupt  maggots  in 
it."  *  This  hideous,  but  descriptive  image  of  "  The  Rump  " 
had,  however,  got  forward  before  ;  for  the  collector  of  "  the 
Rump  Songs "  tells  us,  "  If  you  ask  who  named  it  Ramp, 
know  'twas  so  styled  in  an  honest  sheet  of  prayer,  called 
*  The  Bloody  Rump,'  written  before  the  trial  of  our  late 
sovereign ;  but  the  word  obtained  not  universal  notice,  till  it 
flew  from  the  mouth  of  Major-General  Brown,  at  a  public 
assembly  in  the  days  of  Richard  Cromwell."  Thus  it  hap- 
pens that  a  stinging  nickname  has  been  frequently  applied  to 
render  a  faction  eternally  odious ;  and  the  chance  expression 
of  a  wit,  when  adopted  on  some  public  occasion,  circulates 
among  a  whole  people.  The  present  nickname  originated 
in  derision  on  the  expulsion  of  the  majority  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  by  the  usurping  minority.  It  probably  slept ; 
for  who  would  have  stirred  it  through  the  Protectorate  ?  and 
finally  awakened  at  Richard's  restored,  but  fleeting  "  Rump," 
to  witness  its  own  ridiculous  extinction. 

Our  Rump  passed  through  three  stages  in  its  political 
progress.  Preparatory  to  the  trial  of  the  sovereign,  the 
anti-monarchical  party  constituted  the  minority  in  "  the  Long 
Parliament:"  the  very  by-name  by  which  this  parliament  is 
*  History  of  Independency,  Part  II.  p.  32. 


THE  RUMP. 


415 


recognized  seemed  a  grievance  to  an  impatient  people,  vacil- 
lating with  chimerical  projects  of  government,  and  now 
accustomed,  from  a  wild  indefinite  notion  of  political  equality, 
to  pull  down  all  existing  institutions.  Such  was  the  temper 
of  the  times,  that  an  act  of  the  most  violent  injustice,  openly 
performed,  served  only  as  the  jest  of  the  day,  a  jest  which 
has  passed  into  history.  The  forcible  expulsion  of  two 
hundred  of  their  brother  members,  by  those  who  afterwards 
were  saluted  as  "  The  Rump,"  was  called  "  Pride's  Purge," 
from  the  activity  of  a  colonel  of  that  name,  a  military  ad- 
venturer, who  was  only  the  blind  and  brutal  instrument  of 
his  party ;  for  when  he  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Commons, 
holding  a  paper  with  the  names  of  the  members,  he  did  not 
personally  know  one !  And  his  "  Purge "  might  have 
operated  a  quite  opposite  effect,  administered  by  his  own 
unskilful  hand,  had  not  Lord  Grey  of  Groby,  and  the  door- 
keeper,— worthy  dispersers  of  the  British  senate ! — pointed 
out  the  obnoxious  members,  on  whom  our  colonel  laid  his 
hand,  and  sent  off  by  his  men  to  be  detained,  if  a  bold 
member,  or  to  be  deterred  from  sitting  in  the  house,  if  a 
frightened  one.  This  colonel  had  been  a  drayman  ;  and  the 
contemptible  knot  of  the  Commons,  reduced  to  fifty  or  sixty 
confederates,  which  assembled  after  his  "  Purge,"  were  called 
"  Colonel  Pride's  Dray-Horses." 

It  was  this  Rump  which  voted  the  death  of  the  sovereign, 
and  abolished  the  regal  office,  and  the  House  of  Peers — as 
"  unnecessary,  burdensome,  and  dangerous  !  "  Every  office 
in  parliament  seemed  "  dangerous,"  but  that  of  the  "  Custodes 
libertatis  Anglise,"  the  keepers  of  the  liberties  of  England ! 
or  rather  "  the  gaolers  !  "  "  The  legislative  half-quarter  of 
the  House  of  Commons ! "  indignantly  exclaims  Clement 
Walker — the  "  Montagne  "  of  the  French  revolutionists  ! 

The  "  Red-coats,"  as  the  military  were  nicknamed,  soon 
taught  their  masters,  "  the  Rumpers,"  silence  and  obedience  : 
the  latter  having  raised  one  colossal  man  for  their  own  pur- 
pose, were  annihilated  by  him  at  a  single  blow.  Cromwell, 


THE  RUMP. 


five  years  after,  turned  them  out  of  their  house,  and  put  tne 
keys  into  his  pocket.  Their  last  public  appearance  was  in 
the  fleeting  days  of  Richard  Cromwell,  when  the  comi-tragedy 
of  "  the  Rump  "  concluded  by  a  catastrophe  as  ludicrous  as 
that  of  Tom  Thumb's  tragedy ! 

How  such  a  faction  used  their  instruments  to  gather  in  the 
common  spoil,  and  how  their  instruments  at  length  converted 
the  hands  which  held  them  into  instruments  themselves, 
appears  in  their  history.  When  "  the  Long  Parliament " 
opposed  the  designs  of  Cromwell  and  Ire  ton,  these  chiefs 
cried  up  "  the  liberty  of  the  people,"  and  denied  "  the  au- 
thority of  parliament:'1  but  when  they  had  effectuated  their 
famous  "  purge,"  and  formed  a  House  of  Commons  of  them- 
selves, they  abolished  the  House  of  Lords,  crying  up  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  crying 
down  the  liberty  of  the  people.  Such  is  the  history  of  polit- 
ical factions,  as  well  as  of  statesmen !  Charles  the  Fifth 
alternately  made  use  of  the  Pope's  authority  to  subdue  the 
rising  spirit  of  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  or  raised  an  army 
of  Protestants  to  imprison  the  Pope !  who  branded  his  Ger- 
man allies  by  the  novel  and  odious  name  of  Lutherans.  A 
chain  of  similar  facts  may  be  framed  out  of  modern  history. 

The  "  Rump,"  as  they  were  called  by  every  one  but  their 
own  party,  became  a  whetstone  for  the  wits  to  sharpen  them- 
selves on ;  and  we  have  two  large  collections  of  "  Rump 
Songs,"  curious  chronicles  of  popular  feeling !  "Without  this 
evidence  we  should  not  have  been  so  well  informed  respecting 
the  phases  of  this  portentous  phenomenon.  "  The  Rump " 
was  celebrated  in  verse,  till  at  length  it  became  "  the  Rump 
of  a  Rump  of  a  Rump !  "  as  Foulis  traces  them  to  their  dwin- 
dled and  grotesque  appearance.  It  is  portrayed  by  a  wit  of 
the  times — 

"  The  Rump's  an  old  story,  if  well  understood, 
'Tis  a  thing  dress'd  up  in  a  parliament's  hood, 
And  like  it — but  the  tail  stands  where  the  head  shou'd! 
'T would  make  a  man  scratch  where  it  does  not  itch ! 
They  say  'tis  good  luck  when  a  body  rises 


THE  RUMP. 


417 


With  the  rump  upwards ;  but  he  that  advises 
To  live  in  that  posture,  is  none  of  the  wisest." 

Cromwell's  hunting  them  out  of  the  House  by  military 
force  is  alluded  to — 

"  Our  politic  doctors  do  us  teach, 
That  a  blood-sucking  red-coat's  as  good  as  a  leech 
To  relieve  the  head,  if  applied  to  the  breech." 

In  the  opening  scene  of  the  Restoration,  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
an  honest  republican,  paints  with  dismay  a  scene  otherwise 
very  ludicrous.  "  When  the  town  of  Nottingham,  as  almost 
all  the  rest  of  the  island,  began  to  grow  mad,  and  declared 
themselves  in  their  desires  of  the  king  ; "  or,  as  another  of  the 
opposite  party  writes,  "  When  the  soldiery,  who  had  hitherto 
made  clubs  trumps,  resolved  now  to  turn  up  the  king  of  hearts 
in  their  affections,"  the  rabble  in  town  and  country  vied  with 
each  other  in  burning  the  "  Rump  ; "  and  the  literal  emblem 
was  hung  by  chains  on  gallowses,  with  a  bonfire  underneath, 
while  the  cries  of  "  Let  us  burn  the  Rump !  Let  us  roast  the 
Rump  ! "  were  echoed  everywhere.  The  suddenness  of  this 
universal  change,  which  was  said  to  have  maddened  the  wise, 
and  to  have  sobered  the  mad,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  joy  at 
escaping  from  the  yoke  of  a  military  despotism  ;  perhaps,  too, 
it  marked  the  rapid  transition  of  hope  to  a  restoration  which 
might  be  supposed  to  have  implanted  gratitude  even  in  a 
royal  breast !  The  feelings  of  the  people  expected  to  find  an 
echo  from  the  throne  ! 

"The  Rump,"  besides  their  general  resemblance  to  the 
French  anarchists,  had  also  some  minuter  features  of  ugliness, 
which  Englishmen  have  often  exulted  have  not  marked  an 
English  revolution  —  sanguinary  proscriptions  !  We  had 
thought  that  we  had  no  revolutionary  tribunals !  no  Septem- 
brisers !  no  noyades !  no  movable  guillotines  awaiting  for 
carts  loaded  with  human  victims !  no  infuriated  republican 
urging,  in  a  committee  of  public  safety,  the  necessity  of  a 
salutary  massacre ! 

But  if  it  be  true  that  the  same  motives  and  the  same  prin- 

VOL.  IV.  27 


418 


THE  RUMP. 


ciples  were  at  work  in  both  nations,  and  that  the  like  charac- 
ters were  performing  in  England  the  parts  which  they  did 
afterwards  in  France,  by  an  argument  d  priori  we  might  be 
sure  that  the  same  revolting  crimes  and  chimerical  projects 
were  alike  suggested  at  London  as  at  Paris.  Human  nature, 
even  in  transactions  which  appear  unparalleled,  will  be  found 
to  preserve  a  regularity  of  resemblance  not  always  suspected. 

The  first  great  tragic  act  was  closely  copied  by  the  French : 
and  if  the  popular  page  of  our  history  appears  unstained  by 
their  revolutionary  axe,  this  depended  only  on  a  slight  acci- 
dent ;  for  it  became  a  question  of  "  yea  "  and  "  nay  ! "  and  was 
only  carried  in  the  negative  by  two  voices  in  the  council !  It 
was  debated  among  "the  bloody  Rump,"  as  it  was  hideously 
designated,  "  whether  to  massacre  and  to  put  to  the  sword  all 
the  king's  party  !  "  *  Cromwell  himself  listened  to  the  sug- 
gestion ;  and  it  was  only  put  down  by  the  coolness  of  political 
calculation — the  dread  that  the  massacre  would  be  too  general ! 
Some  of  the  Rump  not  obtaining  the  blessedness  of  a  mas- 
sacre, still  clung  to  the  happiness  of  an  immolation  ;  and 
many  petitions  were  presented,  that  "  two  or  three  principal 
gentlemen  of  the  royal  party  in  each  county  might  be  sac- 
rificed to  justice,  whereby  the  land  might  be  saved  from 
blood-guiltiness  !  "  Sir  Arthur  Haslerigg,  whose  "  passionate 
fondness  of  liberty "  has  been  commended,  f  was  one  of  the 
committee  of  safety  in  1647 — I  too  would  commend  "a  pas- 
sionate lover  of  liberty,"  whenever  I  do  not  discover  that  this 
lover  is  much  more  intent  on  the  dower  than  on  the  bride. 
Haslerigg,  "  an  absurd,  bold  man,"  as  Clarendon,  at  a  single 
stroke,  reveals  his  character,  was  resolved  not  to  be  troubled 
with  king  or  bishop,  or  with  any  power  in  the  state  superior 
to  "  the  Rump's."  We  may  safely  suspect  the  patriot  who 
can  cool  his  vehemence  in  spoliation.    Haslerigg  would  have 

*  Clement  Walker's  History  of  Independency,  Part  II.  p.  130.  Con- 
firmed by  Barwick  in  his  Life,  p.  163. 

t  The  Rev.  Mark  Noble's  Memoirs  of  the  Protectoral  House  of  Crom- 
well, i.  405. 


THE  RUMP. 


410 


no  bishops,  but  this  was  not  from  any  want  of  reverence  for 
church  lands,  for  he  heaped  for  himself  such  wealth  as  to  have 
been  nicknamed  "  the  bishop  of  Durham  !  "  He  is  here  noticed 
for  a  political  crime  different  from  that  of  plunder.  When, 
in  1647,  this  venerable  radical  found  the  parliament  resisting 
his  views,  he  declared  that  "  Some  heads  must  fly  off ! "  add- 
ing "  the  parliament  cannot  save  England ;  we  must  look 
another  way ; " — threatening,  what  afterwards  was  done,  to 
bring  in  the  army  !  It  was  this  "  passionate  lover  of  liberty  " 
who,  when  Dorislaus,  the  parliamentary  agent,  was  assassi- 
nated by  some  Scotchmen  in  Holland,  moved  in  the  house, 
that  "  six  royalists  of  the  best  quality  "  should  be  immediately 
executed  !  When  some  northern  counties  petitioned  the  Com- 
mons for  relief  against  a  famine  in  the  land,  our  Maratist  ob- 
served, that  "  this  want  of  food  would  best  defend  those  coun- 
ties from  Scottish  invasion  ! "  *  The  slaughter  of  Drogheda 
by  Cromwell,  and  his  frightening  all  London  by  what  Walker 
calls  "  a  butchery  of  apprentices,"  when  he  cried  out  to  his 
soldiers  "  to  kill  man,  woman,  and  child,  and  fire  the  city  !  "f 
may  be  placed  among  those  crimes  which  are  committed  to 
open  a  reign  of  terror — but  Hugh  Peters's  solemn  thanks- 
giving to  Heaven  that  "  none  were  spared ! "  was  the  true 
expression  of  the  true  feeling  of  these  political  demoniacs. 
Cromwell  was  cruel  from  politics,  others  from  constitution. 
Some  were  willing  to  be  cruel  without  "blood-guiltiness." 
One  Alexander  Rigby,  a  radical  lawyer,  twice  moved  in  the 
Long  Parliament,  that  those  lords  and  gentlemen  who  were 
"  malignants,"  should  be  sold  as  slaves  to  the  Dey  of  Algiers, 
or  sent  off  to  the  new  plantations  in  the  West  Indies.  He 
had  all  things  prepared ;  for  it  is  added  that  he  had  contracted 
with  two  merchants  to  ship  them  off.  J  There  was  a  most 
bloody-minded  "  maker  of  washing-balls,"  as  one  John  Durant 
is  described,  appointed  a  lecturer  by  the  House  of  Commons, 

*  Clement  Walker's  History  of  Independency,  Part  II.  173. 
t  lb.  Part  I.  160. 

\  Mercurius  Rusticus,  xii.  115.    Barwick's  Life,  p.  42. 


420 


THE  RUMP. 


who  always  left  out  of  the  Lord's  prayer,  "  As  we  forgive 
them  that  trespass  against  us,  and  substituted,  "  Lord,  since 
thou  hast  now  drawn  out  thy  sword,  let  it  not  be  sheathed 
again  till  it  be  glutted  in  the  blood  of  the  malignants."  I  find 
too  many  enormities  of  this  kind.  "  Cursed  be  he  that  doeth 
the  work  of  the  Lord  negligently,  and  keepeth  back  his  sword 
from  blood ! "  was  the  cry  of  the  wretch,  who,  when  a  cele- 
brated actor  and  royalist  sued  for  quarter,  gave  no  other  reply 
than  that  of  "  fitting  the  action  to  the  word."  Their  treat- 
ment of  the  Irish  may  possibly  be  admired  by  a  true  Machi- 
avelist :  "  they  permitted  forty  thousand  of  the  Irish  to  enlist 
in  the  service  of  the  kings  of  Spain  and  France — in  other 
words,  they  expelled  them  at  once,  which,  considering  that 
our  Rumpers  affected  such  an  abhorrence  of  tyranny,  may 
be  considered  as  an  act  of  mercy !  satisfying  themselves  only 
with  dividing  the  forfeited  lands  of  the  aforesaid  forty  thou- 
sand among  their  own  party,  by  lot  and  other  means."  An 
universal  confiscation,  after  all,  is  a  bloodless  massacre.  They 
used  the  Scotch  soldiers,  after  the  battles  of  Dunbar  and 
Worcester  a  little  differently — but  equally  efficaciously — for 
they  sold  their  Scotch  prisoners  for  slaves  to  the  American 
planters.* 

The  Robespierres  and  the  Marats  were  as  extraordinary 
beings,  and  in  some  respects  the  Frenchmen  were  working  on 
a  more  enlarged  scheme.  These  discovered,  that  "  the  gen- 
eration which  had  witnessed  the  preceding  one  would  always 
regret  it;  and  for  the  security  of  the  Revolution,  it  was 
necessary  that  every  person  who  was  thirty  years  old  in  1788 
should  perish  on  the  scaffold !  "    The  anarchists  were  intent 

*  The  following  account  is  drawn  from  Sir  William  Dugdale's  inter- 
leaved Pocket-book  for  1648. — "Aug.  17.  The  Scotch  army,  under  the 
command  of  Duke  Hamilton,  defeated  at  Preston,  in  Lancashire.  24th. 
The  Moorlanders  rose  upon  the  Scots  and  stript  some  of  them.  The  Scotch 
prisoners  miserably  used ;  exposed  to  eat  cabbage-leaves  in  Ridgley  ( Staf- 
fordshire), and  carrot-tops  in  Coleshill  (Warwickshire).  The  soldiers  who 
guarded  them  sold  the  victuals  which  were  brought  in  for  them  from  the 
country." 


THE  RUMP. 


421 


on  reducing  the  French  people  to  eight  millions,  and  on 
destroying  the  great  cities  of  France.  * 

Such  monstrous  persons  and  events  are  not  credible — but 
this  is  no  proof  that  they  have  not  occurred.  Many  incredi- 
ble things  will  happen  ! 

Another  disorganizing  feature  in  the  English  Rumpers  was 
also  observed  in  the  French  Sans-culottes — their  hatred  of 
literature  and  the  arts.  Hebert  was  one  day  directing  his 
satellites  towards  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  to  put  an  end 
to  all  that  human  knowledge  had  collected  for  centuries  on 
centuries — in  one  day  !  alleging,  of  course,  some  good  reason. 
This  hero  was  only  diverted  from  the  enterprise  by  being 
persuaded  to  postpone  it  for  a  day  or  two,  when  luckily  the 
guillotine  intervened  ;  the  same  circumstance  occurred  here. 
The  burning  of  the  records  in  the  Tower  was  certainly  pro- 
posed ;  a  speech  of  Selden's,  which  I  cannot  immediately 
turn  to,  put  a  stop  to  these  incendiaries.  It  wTas  debated  in 
the  Rump  parliament,  when  Cromwell  was  general,  whether 
they  should  dissolve  the  universities  ?  They  concluded  that 
no  university  was  necessary ;  that  there  were  no  ancient 
examples  of  such  education,  and  that  scholars  in  other  coun- 
tries did  study  at  their  own  cost  and  charges,  and  therefore 
they  looked  on  them  as  unnecessary,  and  thought  them  fitting 
to  be  taken  away  for  the  public  use! — How  these  venerable 
asylums  escaped  from  being  sold  with  the  king's  pictures,  as 
stone  and  timber,  and  why  their  rich  endowments  were  not 
shared  among  such  inveterate  ignorance  and  remorseless 
spoliation,  might  claim  some  inquiry. 

The  Abbe  Morellet,  a  great  political  economist,  imagined 
that  the  source  of  all  the  crimes  of  the  French  Revolution 
was  their  violation  of  the  sacred  rights  of  property.  The 
perpetual  invectives  of  the  Sans-culottes  of  France  against 
proprietors  and  against  property  proceeded  from  demoralized 
beings  who  formed  panegyrics  on  all  crimes ;  crimes,  to  ex- 
plain whose  revolutionary  terms,  a  new  dictionary  was  re- 

*  Desodoard's  Histoire  Philosophique  de  la  Revolution  de  France,  iv.  5. 


422 


THE  RUMP. 


quired.  But  even  these  anarchists,  in  their  mad  expres- 
sions against  property,  and  in  their  wildest  notions  of  their 
"egalite,"  have  not  gone  beyond  the  daring  of  our  own 
u  Rumpers ! " 

Of  those  revolutionary  journals  of  the  parliament  of  1 649, 
which  in  spirit  so  strongly  resemble  the  diurnal  or  hebdoma- 
dal effusions  of  the  redoubtable  French  Hebert,  Marat,  and 
others  of  that  stamp,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  is,  "  The 
Moderate,  impartially  communicating  Martial  Affairs  to  the 
Kingdom  of  England ; "  the  monarchical  title  our  common- 
wealth men  had  not  yet  had  time  enough  to  obliterate  from 
their  colloquial  style.  This  writer  called  himself,  in  his 
barbarous  English,  The  Moderate !  It  would  be  hard  to 
conceive  the  meanness  and  illiteracy  to  which  the  English 
language  was  reduced  under  the  pens  of  the  rabble-writers 
of  these  days,  had  we  not  witnessed  in  the  present  time  a 
parallel  to  their  compositions.  "  The  Moderate  !  "  was  a  title 
assumed  on  the  principle  on  which  Marat  denominated  him- 
self "l'Ami  du  Peuple."  It  is  curious  that  the  most  fero- 
cious politicians  usually  assert  their  moderation.  Robespierre, 
in  his  justification,  declares  that  Marat  "  m'a  souvent  accuse 
de  Mode'rantisme."  The  same  actors,  playing  the  same  parts, 
may  be  always  paralleled  in  their  language  and  their  deeds. 
This  "Moderate"  steadily  pursued  one  great  principle — the 
overthrow  of  all  property.  Assuming  that  property  was  the 
original  cause  of  sin !  an  exhortation  to  the  people  for  this 
purpose  is  the  subject  of  the  present  paper :  *  the  illustration 
of  his  principle  is  as  striking  as  the  principle  itself. 

It  is  an  apology  for,  or  rather  a  defence  of  robbery  !  Some 
moss-troopers  had  been  condemned  to  be  hanged,  for  practis- 
ing their  venerable  custom  of  gratuitously  supplying  them- 
selves from  the  flocks  and  herds  of  their  weaker  neighbours : 
our  "  Moderate  "  ingeniously  discovers,  that  the  loss  of  these 
men's  lives  is  to  be  attributed  to  nothing  but  property.  They 


*  The  Moderate,  from  Tuesday,  July  31,  to  August  7, 1649. 


THE  RUMP. 


423 


are  necessitated  to  offend  the  laws,  in  order  to  obtain  a  liveli- 
hood ! 

On  this  he  descants  ;  and  the  extract  is  a  political  curiosity, 
in  the  French  style  !  "  Property  is  the  original  cause  of  any 
sin  between  party  and  party  as  to  civil  transactions.  And 
since  the  tyrant  is  taken  off,  and  the  government  altered  in 
nomine,  so  ought  it  really  to  redound  to  the  good  of  the 
people  in  specie ;  which,  though  they  cannot  expect  it  in  few 
years,  by  reason  of  the  multiplicity  of  the  gentlemen  in  au- 
thority, command,  &c.  who  drive  on  all  designs  for  support 
of  the  old  government,  and  consequently  their  own  interest 
and  the  people's  slavery,  yet  they  doubt  not,  but  in  time  the 
people  will  herein  discern  their  own  blindness  and  folly." 

In  September,  he  advanced  with  more  depth  of  thought. 
u  Wars  have  ever  been  clothed  with  the  most  gracious  pre- 
tences— viz:  reformation  of  religion,  the  laws  of  the  land,  the 
liberty  of  the  subject,  &c. ;  though  the  effects  thereof  have 
proved  most  destructive  to  every  nation ;  making  the  sword, 
and  not  the  people,  the  original  of  all  authorities  for  many 
hundred  years  together,  taking  away  each  maris  birthright, 
and  settling  upon  a  few  a  cursed  propriety;  the  ground 
of  all  civil  offences,  and  the  greatest  cause  of  most  sins 
against  the  heavenly  Deity.  This  tyranny  and  oppression 
running  through  the  veins  of  many  of  our  predecessors,  and 
being  too  long  maintained  by  the  sword  upon  a  royal  foun- 
dation, at  last  became  so  customary,  as  to  the  vulgar  it  seemed 
most  natural — the  only  reason  why  the  people  of  this  time 
are  so  ignorant  of  their  birthright,  their  only  freedom,"  &c. 

"  The  birthright  "  of  citoyen  Egalite  to  "  a  cursed  propri- 
ety settled  on  a  few-"  was  not,  even  among  the  French  Jaco- 
bins, urged  with  more  amazing  force.  Had  things  proceeded 
according  to  our  "  Moderate's  "  plan,  "  the  people's  slavery  " 
had  been  something  worse.  In  a  short  time  the  nation  would 
have  had  more  proprietors  than  property.  We  have  a  curi- 
ous list  of  the  spoliations  of  those  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  who,  after  their  famous  self-denying  ordinances, 


424  THE  RUMP. 

appropriated  among  themselves  sums  of  money,  offices,  and 
lands,  for  services  "  done  or  to  be  done." 

The  most  innocent  of  this  new  government  of  "  the  Majesty 
of  the  People,"  were  those  whose  talents  had  been  limited  by 
Nature  to  peddle  and  purloin ;  puny  mechanics,  who  had  sud- 
denly dropped  their  needles,  their  hammers,  and  their  lasts, 
and  slunk  out  from  behind  their  shop-counters  ;  those  who 
had  never  aspired  beyond  the  constable  of  the  parish,  were 
now  seated  in  the  council  of  state  ;  where,  as  Milton  describes 
them,  "  they  fell  to  huckster  the  commonwealth  : "  there  they 
met  a  more  rabid  race  of  obscure  lawyers,  and  discontented 
men  of  family,  of  blasted  reputations  ;  adventurers,  who  were 
to  command  the  militia  and  navy  of  England, — governors  of 
the  three  kingdoms  !  whose  votes  and  ordinances  resounded 
with  nothing  else  but  new  impositions,  new  taxes,  excises, 
yearly,  monthly,  weekly  sequestrations,  compositions,  and 
universal  robbery ! 

Baxter  vents  one  deep  groan  of  indignation,  and  presciently 
announces  one  future  consequence  of  Reform  !  "  In  all  this 
appeared  the  severity  of  God,  the  mutability  of  worldly  things, 
and  the  fruits  of  error,  pride,  and  selfishness,  to  be  charged 
hereafter  upon  reformation  and  religion."  As  a  statesman, 
the  sagacity  of  this  honest  prophet  was  narrowed  by  the  hori- 
zon of  his  religious  views  ;  for  he  ascribes  the  whole  as 
"  prepared  by  Satan  to  the  injury  of  the  Protestant  cause, 
and  the  advantage  of  the  Papists  !  "  But  dropping  his  par- 
ticular application  to  the  devil  and  the  Papists,  honest  Richard 
Baxter  is  perfectly  right  in  his  general  principle  concerning 
*  Rumpers,"— "  Sans-culottes,"  and  "  Radicals." 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


425 


LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY.— 
OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 

Such  a  picture  may  be  furnished  by  some  unexpected 
materials  which  my  inquiries  have  obtained  of  Oldys.  Tins 
is  a  sort  of  personage  little  known  to  the  wits,  who  write 
more  than  they  read,  and  to  their  volatile  votaries,  who  only 
read  what  the  wits  write.  It  is  time  to  vindicate  the  honours 
of  the  few  whose  laborious  days  enrich  the  stores  of  national 
literature,  not  by  the  duplicates  but  the  supplements  of  knowl- 
edge. A  literary  antiquary  is  that  idler  whose  life  is  passed 
in  a  perpetual  voyage  autour  de  ma  chambre ;  fervent  in 
sagacious  diligence,  instinct  with  the  enthusiasm  of  curious 
inquiry,  critical  as  well  as  erudite  ;  he  has  to  arbitrate  between 
contending  opinions,  to  resolve  the  doubtful,  to  clear  up  the 
obscure,  and  to  grasp  at  the  remote  ;  so  busied  with  other 
times,  and  so  interested  for  other  persons  than  those  about 
him,  that  he  becomes  the  inhabitant  of  the  visionary  world  of 
books.  He  counts  only  his  days  by  his  acquisitions,  and  may 
be  said  by  his  original  discoveries  to  be  the  creator  of 
facts  ;  often  exciting  the  gratitude  of  the  literary  world, 
while  the  very  name  of  the  benefactor  has  not  always  de- 
scended with  the  inestimable  labours. 

Such  is  the  man  whom  we  often  find  leaving,  when  he  dies, 
his  favourite  volumes  only  an  incomplete  project !  and  few 
of  this  class  of  literary  men  have  escaped  the  fate  reserved 
for  most  of  their  brothers.  Voluminous  works  have  been 
usually  left  unfinished  by  the  death  of  the  authors  ;  and  it  is 
with  them  as  with  the  planting  of  trees,  of  which  Johnson 
has  forcibly  observed,  "  There  is  a  frightful  interval  between 
the  seed  and  timber/'  And  he  admirably  remarks,  what  I 
cannot  forbear  applying  to  the  labours  I  am  now  to  describe : 
"  He  that  calculates  the  growth  of  trees  has  the  remembrance 
of  the  shortness  of  life  driven  hard  upon  him.  He  knows 
that  he  is  doing  what  will  never  benefit  himself ;  and  when  he 


426    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


rejoices  to  see  the  stem  rise,  is  disposed  to  repine  that  another 
shall  cut  it  down."  The  days  of  the  patriotic  Count  Mazzu- 
chelli  were  freely  given  to  his  national  literature ;  and  six 
invaluable  folios  attest  the  gigantic  force  of  his  immense  eru- 
dition ;  yet  these  only  carry  us  through  the  letters  A  and  B  : 
and  though  Mazzuchelli  had  finished  for  the  press  other  vol- 
umes, the  torpor  of  his  descendants  has  defrauded  Europe  of 
her  claims.  The  Abbe  Goujet,  who  had  designed  a  classitied 
history  of  his  national  literature,  in  the  eighteen  volumes  we 
possess,  could  only  conclude  that  of  the  translators,  and  com- 
mence that  of  the  poets ;  two  other  volumes  in  manuscript 
have  perished.  That  great  enterprise  of  the  Benedictines, 
the  "  Histoire  Literaire  de  la  France,"  now  consists  of  twelve 
large  quartos,  and  the  industry  of  its  successive  writers  has 
only  been  able  to  carry  it  to  the  twelfth  century.  David 
Clement  designed  the  most  extensive  bibliography  which  had 
ever  appeared  ;  but  the  diligent  life  of  the  writer  could  only 
proceed  as  far  as  H.  The  alphabetical  order,  which  so  many 
writers  of  this  class  have  adopted,  has  proved  a  mortifying 
memento  of  human  life  !  Tiraboschi  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
complete  his  great  national  history  of  Italian  literature.  But, 
unhappily  for  us,  Thomas  Warton,  after  feeling  his  way 
through  the  darker  ages  of  our  poetry,  in  planning  the  map 
of  the  beautiful  land,  of  which  he  had  only  a  Pisgah-sight, 
expired  amidst  his  volumes.  The  most  precious  portion  of 
"Warton's  history  is  but  the  fragment  of  a  fragment. 

Oldys,  among  this  brotherhood,  has  met  perhaps  with  a 
harder  fate ;  his  published  works,  and  the  numerous  ones  to 
which  he  contributed,  are  now  highly  appreciated  by  the 
lovers  of  books  ;  but  the  larger  portion  of  his  literary  labours 
have  met  with  the  sad  fortune  of  dispersed,  and  probably 
of  wasted  manuscripts.  Oldys's  manuscripts,  or  0.  M.  as  they 
are  sometimes  designated,  are  constantly  referred  to  by  every 
distinguished  writer  on  our  literary  history.  I  believe  that 
not  one  of  them  could  have  given  us  any  positive  account  of 
the  manuscripts  themselves  !    They  have  indeed  long  served 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


427 


as  the  solitary  sources  of  information — but  like  the  well  at 
the  way-side,  too  many  have  drawn  their  waters  in  silence. 

Oldys  is  chiefly  known  by  the  caricature  of  the  facetious 
Grose  ;  a  great  humorist,  both  with  pencil  and  with  pen  :  it  is 
in  a  posthumous  scrap-book,  where  Grose  deposited  his  odd3 
and  ends,  and  where  there  is  perhaps  not  a  single  story  which 
is  not  satirical.  Our  lively  antiquary,  who  cared  more  for 
rusty  armour  than  for  rusty  volumes,  would  turn  over  these 
flams  and  quips  to  some  confidential  friend,  to  enjoy  together 
a  secret  laugh  at  their  literary  intimates.  His  eager  executor, 
who  happened  to  be  his  bookseller,  served  up  the  poignant 
hash  to  the  public  as  "  Grose's  Olio  !  "  The  delineation  of 
Oldys  is  sufficiently  overcharged  for  "  the  nonce."  One 
prevalent  infirmity  of  honest  Oldys,  his  love  of  companion- 
ship over  too  social  a  glass,  sends  him  down  to  posterity  in  a 
grotesque  attitude  ;  and  Mr.  Alexander  Chalmers,  who  has 
given  us  the  fullest  account  of  Oldys,  has  inflicted  on  him 
something  like  a  sermon,  on  "  a  state  of  intoxication." 

Alas  ! — Oldys  was  an  outcast  of  fortune,  and  the  utter 
simplicity  of  his  heart  was  guileless  as  a  child's — ever  open 
to  the  designing.  The  noble  spirit  of  a  Duke  of  Norfolk 
once  rescued  the  long-lost  historian  of  Rawleigh  from  the 
confinement  of  the  Fleet,  where  he  had  existed,  probably  for- 
gotten by  the  world,  for  six  years.  It  was  by  an  act  of  grace 
that  the  duke  safely  placed  Oldys  in  the  Heralds'  College  as 
Norroy  King  of  Arms.*    But  Oldys,  like  all  shy  and  retired 

*  Mr.  John  Taylor,  the  son  of  Oldys's  intimate  friend,  has  furnished  me 
with  this  interesting  anecdote.  "  Oldys,  as  my  father  informed  me,  was 
many  years  in  quiet  obscurity  in  the  Fleet  prison,  but  at  last  was  spirited 
up  to  make  his  situation  known  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  of  that  time,  who 
received  Oldys's  letter  while  he  was  at  dinner  with  some  friends.  The 
Duke  immediately  communicated  the  contents  to  the  company,  observing 
that  he  had  long  been  anxious  to  know  what  had  become  of  an  old,  though 
an  humble  friend,  and  was  happy  by  that  letter  to  find  that  he  was  alive. 
He  then  called  for  his  gentleman,  (a  kind  of  humble  friend  whom  noblemen 
used  to  retain  under  that  name  in  those  days,)  and  desired  him  to  go  im- 
mediately to  the  Fleet,  to  take  money  for  the  immediate  need  of  Oldys,  to 
procure  an  account  of  his  debts,  and  discharge  them.    Oldys  was  soon 


428    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


men,  had  contracted  peculiar  habits  and  close  attachments  for 
a  few  ;  both  these  he  could  indulge  at  no  distance.  He  liked 
his  old  associates  in  the  purlieus  of  the  Fleet,  whom  he  face- 
tiously dignified  as  "  his  Rulers,"  and  there,  as  I  have  heard, 
with  the  grotesque  whim  of  a  herald,  established  "  The 
Dragon  Club."  Companionship  yields  the  poor  man  unpur- 
chased pleasures.  Oldys,  busied  every  morning,  among  the 
departed  wits  and  the  learned  of  our  country,  reflected  some 
image  from  them  of  their  wit  and  learning  to  his  companions : 
a  secret  history  as  yet  untold,  and  ancient  wit,  which,  cleared 
of  the  rust,  seemed  to  him  brilliant  as  the  modern  ! 

It  is  hard,  however,  for  a  literary  antiquary  to  be  carica- 
tured, and  for  a  herald  to  be  ridiculed  about  an  "  unseemly 
reeling,  with  the  coronet  of  the  Princess  Caroline,  which 
looked  unsteady  on  the  cushion,  to  the  great  scandal  of  his 
brethren," — a  circumstance  which  could  never  have  occurred 
at  the  burial  of  a  prince  or  princess,  as  the  coronet  is  carried 
by  Clarencieux,  and  not  by  Norroy.  Oldys's  deep  potations 
of  ale,  however,  give  me  an  opportunity  of  bestowing  on 
him  the  honour  of  being  the  author  of  a  popular  Anacreontic 
song.  Mr.  Taylor  informs  me  that  "  Oldys  always  asserted 
that  he  was  the  author  of  the  well-known  song — 

1  Busy,  curious,  thirsty  fly ! ' 

and  as  he  was  a  rigid  lover  of  truth,  I  doubt  not  that  he 
wrote  it."  My  own  researches  confirm  it ;  I  have  traced  this 
popular  song  through  a  dozen  of  collections  since  the  year 
1740,  the  first  in  which  I  find  it.  In  the  later  collections  an 
original  inscription  has  been  dropped,  which  the  accurate 

after,  either  by  the  duke's  gift  or  interest,  appointed  Norroy  King  of  Arms, 
and  I  remember  that  his  official  regalia  came  into  my  father's  hands  at  his 
death." 

In  the  Life  of  Oldys,  by  Mr.  A.  Chalmers,  the  date  of  this  promotion  is 
not  found.  My  accomplished  friend,  the  Rev.  J.  Dallaway.  has  obligingly 
examined  the  records  of  the  college,  by  which  it  appears  that  Oldys  had 
been  Norfolk  herald  extraordinary,  but  not  belonging  to  the  college,  was 
appointed  per  saltum  Norroy  King  of  Arms  by  patent,  May  5th,  1755. 


OLDYS  AND  ins  MANUSCRIPTS.  420 


Ritson  has  restored,  without,  however,  being  able  to  discover 
the  writer.  In  1740  it  is  said  to  have  been  "  made  extem- 
pore by  a  gentleman,  occasioned  by  a  fly  drinking  out  of  his 
cup  of  ale  ;  " — the  accustomed  potion  of  poor  Oldys  !  * 

Grose,  however,  though  a  great  joker  on  the  peculiarities 
of  Oldys,  was  far  from  insensible  to  the  extraordinary  acqui- 
sitions of  the  man.  "  His  knowledge  of  English  books  has 
hardly  been  exceeded."  Grose  too  was  struck  by  the  deli- 
cacy of  honour,  and  the  unswerving  veracity  which  so  strongly 
characterized  Oldys,  of  which  he  gives  a  remarkable  instance. 
We  are  concerned  in  ascertaining  the  moral  integrity  of  the 
writer,  whose  main  business  is  with  history. 

At  a  time  when  our  literary  history,  excepting  in  the  soli- 
tary labour  of  Anthony  Wood,  was  a  forest,  with  neither  road 
nor  pathway,  Oldys,  fortunately  placed  in  the  library  of  the 
Earl  of  Oxford,  yielded  up  his  entire  days  to  researches  con- 
cerning the  books  and  the  men  of  the  preceding  age.  His 
labours  were  then  valueless,  their  very  nature  not  yet  ascer- 
tained, and  when  he  opened  the  treasures  of  our  ancient  lore, 

*  The  beautiful  simplicity  of  this  Anacreontic  has  met  the  unusual  fate 
of  entirely  losing  its  character,  by  an  additional  and  incongruous  stanza  in 
the  modern  editions,  by  a  gentleman  who  has  put  into  practice  the  unal- 
lowable liberty  of  altering  the  poetical  and  dramatic  compositions  of  ac- 
knowledged genius  to  his  own  notion  of  what  he  deems  "  morality;  "  but 
in  works  of  genius  whatever  is  dull  ceases  to  be  moral.  "  The  Fly  "  of 
Oldys  may  stand  by  "  The  Fly  of  Gray  for  melancholy  tenderness  of 
thought ;  it  consisted  only  of  these  two  stanzas : 

"  Busy,  curious,  thirsty  fly ! 
Drink  with  me,  and  drink  as  I ! 
Freely  welcome  to  my  cup, 
Couldst  thou  sip  and  sip  it  up : 
Make  the  most  of  life  you  may; 
Life  is  short  and  wears  away ! 

Both  alike  are  mine  and  thine, 
Hastening  quick  to  their  decline ! 
Thine' s  a  summer,  mine  no  more, 
Though  repeated  to  threescore ! 
Threescore  summers  when  they're  gone, 
Will  appear  as  short  as  one !  " 


430   LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


in  "  The  British  Librarian,"  it  was  closed  for  want  of  public 
encouragement.  Our  writers,  then  struggling  to  create  an 
age  of  genius  of  their  own,  forgot  that  they  had  had  any  pro- 
genitors ;  or,  while  they  were  acquiring  new  modes  of  excel- 
lence, that  they  were  losing  others,  to  which  their  posterity 
or  the  national  genius  might  return.  (To  know,  and  to 
admire  only,  the  literature  and  the  tastes  of  our  own  age,  is  a 
species  of  elegant  barbarism.)  *  Spenser  was  considered 
nearly  as  obsolete  as  Chaucer  ;  Milton  was  veiled  by  oblivion, 
and  Shakspeare's  dramas  were  so  imperfectly  known,  that  in 
looking  over  the  play-bills  of  1711,  and  much  later,  I  find 
that  whenever  it  chanced  that  they  were  acted,  they  were 
always  announced  to  have  been  "  written  by  Shakspeare." 
Massinger  was  unknown  ;  and  Jonson,  though  called  "  im- 
mortal" in  the  old  play-bills,  lay  entombed  in  his  two  folios. 
The  poetical  era  of  Elizabeth,  the  eloquent  age  of  James  the 
First,  and  the  age  of  wit  of  Charles  the  Second,  were  blanks 
in  our  literary  history.  Bysshe  compiling  an  Art  of  Poetry, 
in  1718,  passed  by  in  his  collection  "  Spenser  and  the  poets 
of  las  age,  because  their  language  is  now  become  so  obsolete, 
that  most  readers  of  our  age  have  no  ear  for  them,  and  there- 
fore Shakspeare  himself  is  so  rarely  cited  in  my  collection." 
The  best  English  poets  were  considered  to  be  the  modem  ;  a 
taste  which  is  always  obstinate  ! 

All  this  was  nothing  to  Oldys  ;  his  literary  curiosity  antici- 
pated by  half  a  century  the  fervour  of  the  present  day.  This 
energetic  direction  of  all  his  thoughts  was  sustained  by  that 
life  of  discovery,  which  in  literary  researches  is  starting 
novelties  among  old  and  unremembered  things ;  contemplat- 
ing some  ancient  tract  as  precious  as  a  manuscript,  or  revel- 
ling in  the  volume  of  a  poet,  whose  passport  of  fame  was  yet 
delayed  in  its  way ;  or  disinterring  the  treasure  of  some 

*  We  have  been  taught  to  enjoy  the  two  ages  of  Genius  and  of  Taste. 
The  literary  public  are  deeply  indebted  to  the  editorial  care,  the  taste, 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  Mr.  Singer,  for  exquisite  reprints  of  some  valuable 
writers. 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


431 


secluded  manuscript,  whence  he  drew  a  virgin  extract;  or 
raising  up  a  sort  of  domestic  intimacy  with  the  eminent  in 
arms,  in  politics,  and  in  literature,  in  this  visionary  life,  life 
itself  with  Oldys  was  insensibly  gliding  away — its  cares 
almost  unfelt ! 

The  life  of  a  literary  antiquary  partakes  of  the  nature  of 
those  who,  having  no  concerns  of  their  own,  busy  themselves 
with  those  of  others.  Oldys  lived  in  the  back  ages  of  Eng- 
land ;  he  had  crept  among  the  dark  passages  of  Time,  till, 
like  an  old  gentleman-usher,  he  seemed  to  be  reporting  the 
secret  history  of  the  courts  which  he  had  lived  in.  He  had 
been  charmed  among  their  masques  and  revels,  had  eyed 
with  astonishment  their  cumbrous  magnificence,  when  knights 
and  ladies  carried  on  their  mantles  and  their  cloth  of  gold 
ten  thousand  pounds'  worth  of  ropes  of  pearls,  and  buttons 
of  diamonds ;  or,  descending  to  the  gay  court  of  the  second 
Charles,  he  tattled  merry  tales,  as  in  that  of  the  first  he  had 
painfully  watched,  like  a  patriot  or  a  loyalist,  a  distempered 
era.  He  had  lived  so  constantly  with  these  people  of  another 
age,  and  had  so  deeply  interested  himself  in  their  affairs,  and 
so  loved  the  wit  and  the  learning  which  are  often  bright 
under  the  rust  of  antiquity,  that  his  own  uncourtly  style  is 
embrowned  with  the  tint  of  a  century  old.  But  it  was  this 
taste  and  curiosity  which  alone  could  have  produced  the  ex- 
traordinary volume  of  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh's  life  ;  a  work 
richly  inlaid  with  the  most  curious  facts  and  the  juxtaposition 
of  the  most  remote  knowledge  ;  to  judge  by  its  fulness  of 
narrative,  it  would  seem  rather  to  have  been  the  work  of  a 
contemporary.  * 

It  was  an  advantage  in  this  primaeval  era  of  literary  curi- 
osity, that  those  volumes  which  are  now  not  even  to  be  found 
in  our  national  library,  where  certainly  they  are  perpetually 

*  Gibbon  once  meditated  a  life  of  Rawleigh,  and  for  that  purpose  began 
some  researches  in  that  "  memorable  era  of  our  English  annals."  After 
reading  Oldys's,  he  relinquished  his  design,  from  a  conviction  that  "he 
could  add  nothing  new  to  the  subject,  except  the  uncertain  merit  of  style 
and  sentiment." 


432    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


wanted,  and  which  are  now  so  excessively  appreciated,  were 
exposed  on  stalls,  through  the  reigns  of  Anne  and  the  two 
Georges.*  Oldys  encountered  no  competitor,  cased  in  the 
invulnerable  mail  of  his  purse,  to  dispute  his  possession  of  the 
rarest  volume.  On  the  other  hand,  our  early  collector  did 
not  possess  our  advantages ;  he  could  not  fly  for  instant  aid 
to  a  "  Biographia  Britannica,"  he  had  no  history  of  our 
poetry,  nor  even  of  our  drama.  Oldys  could  tread  in  no 
man's  path,  for  every  soil  about  him  was  unbroken  ground. 
He  had  to  create  every  thing  for  his  own  purposes.  We 
gather  fruit  from  trees  which  others  have  planted,  and  too 
often  we  but  "  pluck  and  eat." 

Nulla  dies  sine  linea,  was  his  sole  hope  while  he  was  accu- 
mulating masses  of  notes  ;  and  as  Oldys  never  used  his  pen 
from  the  weak  passion  of  scribbling,  but  from  the  urgency  of 
preserving  some  substantial  knowledge,  or  planning  some 
future  inquiry,  he  amassed  nothing  but  what  he  wished  to 
remember.  Even  the  minuter  pleasures  of  settling  a  date, 
or  classifying  a  title-page,  were  enjoyments  to  his  incessant 
pen.  Every  thing  was  acquisition.  This  never-ending  busi- 
ness of  research  appears  to  have  absorbed  his  powers,  and 
sometimes,  to  have  dulled  his  conceptions.  No  one  more 
aptly  exercised  the  tact  of  discovery  ;  he  knew  where  to  feel 
in  the  dark :  but  he  was  not  of  the  race — that  race  indeed 
had  not  yet  appeared  among  us — who  could  melt,  into  their 
Corinthian  brass,  the  mingled  treasures  of  Research,  Imagi- 
nation, and  Philosophy ! 

We  may  be  curious  to  inquire  where  our  literary  antiquary 
deposited  the  discoveries  and  curiosities  which  he  was  so  in- 
cessantly acquiring.  They  were  dispersed,  on  many  a  fly- 
leaf, in  occasional  memorandum-books;  in  ample  marginal 
notes  on  his  authors — they  were  sometimes  thrown  into  what 
he  calls  his  "  parchment  budgets  "  or  "  Bags  of  Biography — 

*  The  British  Museum  is  extremely  deficient  in  our  National  Literature. 
The  gift  of  George  the  Third's  library  has,  however,  probably  supplied 
many  deficiencies. 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


433 


of  Botany — of  Obituary  " — of  "  Books  relative  to  London," 
and  other  titles  and  bags,  which  he  was  every  day  filling. 
Sometimes  his  collections  seem  to  have  been  intended  for  a 
series  of  volumes,  for  he  refers  to  "  My  first  Volume  of  Ta- 
bles of  the  eminent  Persons  celebrated  by  English  Poets  " — 
to  another  of  "  Poetical  Characteristics."  Among  those 
manuscripts  which  I  have  seen,  I  find  one  mentioned,  appar- 
ently of  a  wide  circuit,  under  the  reference  of  "  My  Bio- 
graphical Institutions.  Part  third  ;  containing  a  Catalogue 
of  all  the  English  Lives,  with  Historical  and  Critical  Obser- 
vations on  them."  But  will  our  curious  or  our  whimsical 
collectors  of  the  present  day  endure,  without  impatience,  the 
loss  of  a  quarto  manuscript,  which  bears  this  rich  condiment 
for  its  title — "  Of  London  Libraries  ;  with  Anecdotes  of  Col- 
lectors of  Books ;  Remarks  on  Booksellers  ;  and  on  the  first 
Publishers  of  Catalogues?"  Oldys  left  ample  annotations 
on  "  Fuller's  Worthies,"  and  "  Winstanley's  Lives  of  the 
Poets,"  and  on  "  Langbaine's  Dramatic  Poets."  The  late 
Mr.  Boswell  showed  me  a  Fuller  in  the  Malone  collection, 
with  Steevens's  transcriptions  of  Oldys's  notes,  which  Malone 
purchased  for  £43  at  Steevens's  sale;  but  where  is  the  origi- 
nal copy  of  Oldys  ?  The  "  Winstanley,"  I  think,  also  reposes 
in  the  same  collection.  The  "  Langbaine  "  is  far-famed,  and 
is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  the  gift  of  Dr.  Birch ; 
it  has  been  considered  so  precious,  that  several  of  our  eminent 
writers  have  cheerfully  passed  through  the  labour  of  a  minute 
transcription  of  its  numberless  notes.  In  the  history  of  the 
fate  and  fortune  of  books,  that  of  Oldys's  Langbaine  is  too 
curious  to  omit.  Oldys  may  tell  his  own  story,  which  I  find 
in  the  Museum  copy,  p.  336,  and  which  copy  appears  to  be 
a  second  attempt ;  for  of  the  Jirst  Langbaine  we  have  this 
account : — 

When  I  left  London  in  1724,  to  reside  in  Yorkshire,  I  left  in  the  care  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Burridge's  family,  with  whom  I  had  several  years  lodged, 
among  many  other  books,  goods,  &c.  a  copy  of  this  Langbaine,  in  which 
I  had  wrote  several  notes  and  references  to  further  knowledge  of  these 
poets.    When  I  returned  to  London,  1730,  1  understood  my  books  had  been 

VOL.  IV.  28 


434    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


dispersed;  and  afterwards  becoming  acquainted  with  Mr.  T.  Coxeter,  I 
found  that  he  had  bought  my  Langbaine  of  a  bookseller  who  was  a  great 
collector  of  plays  and  poetical  books :  this  must  have  been  of  service  to 
him,  and  he  has  kept  it  so  carefully  from  my  sight,  that  I  never  could  have 
the  opportunity  of  transcribing  into  this  I  am  now  writing  in,  the  Notes  I 
had  collected  in  that.* 

This first  Langbaine,  with  additions  by  Coxeter,  was  bought, 
at  the  sale  of  his  books,  by  Theophilus  Cibber :  on  the 
strength  of  these  notes  he  prefixed  his  name  to  the  first  col- 
lection of  the  "  Lives  of  our  Poets,"  which  appeared  in 
weekly  numbers,  and  now  form  five  volumes,  written  chiefly 
by  Shiels,  an  amanuensis  of  Dr.  Johnson.  Shiels  has  been  re- 
cently castigated  by  Mr.  GifFord. 

These  literary  jobbers  nowhere  distinguished  Coxeter's 
and  Oldys's  curious  matter  from  their  own.  Such  was 
the  fate  of  the  first  copy  of  Langbaine,  with  Oldys's 
notes  ;  but  the  second  is  more  important.  At  an  auction  of 
some  of  Oldys's  books  and  manuscripts,  of  which  I  have  seen  a 
printed  catalogue,  Dr.  Birch  purchased  this  invaluable  copy 

*  At  the  Bodleian  Library,  I  learnt  by  a  letter  with  which  I  am  favoured 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bliss,  that  there  is  an  interleaved  "  Gildon's  Lives  and 
Characters  of  the  Dramatic  Poets,"  with  corrections,  which  once  belonged 
to  Coxeter,  who  appears  to  have  intended  a  new  edition.  Whether  Coxe- 
ter transcribed  into  his  Gildon  the  notes  of  Oldys's  Jirst  Langbaine,  is 
worth  inquiry.  Coxeter's  conduct,  though  he  had  purchased  Oldys's  first 
Langbaine,  was  that  of  an  ungenerous  miser,  who  will  quarrel  with  a 
brother  rather  than  share  in  any  acquisition  he  can  get  into  his  own  hands. 
To  Coxeter  we  also  owe  much ;  he  suggested  Dodsley's  Collection  of  old 
Plays,  and  the  first  tolerable  edition  of  Massinger. 

Oldys  could  not  have  been  employed  in  Lord  Oxford's  library,  as  Mr. 
Chalmers  conjectures,  about  1726;  for  hare  he  mentions  that  he  was  in 
Yorkshire  from  1724  to  1730.  This  period  is  a  remarkable  blank  in  Oldys's 
life.  My  learned  friend,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hunter,  has  supplied  me  with  a 
note  in  the  copy  of  Fuller  in  the  Malone  Collection,  preserved  at  the  Bod- 
leian. Those  years  were  passed  apparently  in  the  household  of  the  first 
Earl  of  Malton,  who  built  Went  worth  House.  There  all  the  collections  of 
the  antiquary  Gascoigne,  with  "  seven  great  chests  of  manuscripts,"  some 
as  ancient  as  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  were  condemned  in  one  solemn 
sacrifice  to  Vulcan;  the  ruthless  earl  being  impenetrable  .to  the  prayers 
and  remonstrances  of  our  votary  to  English  History.  Oldys  left  the  earl 
with  little  satisfaction,  as  appears  by  some  severe  strictures  from  his  gentle 
pen. 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


435 


for  three  shillings  and  six-pence.*  Such  was  the  value  at- 
tached to  these  original  researches  concerning  our  poets,  and 
of  which,  to  obtain  only  a  transcript,  very  large  sums  have 
since  been  cheerfully  given.  The  Museum  copy  of  Lang- 
baine  is  in  Oldys's  handwriting,  not  interleaved,  but  over- 
flowing with  notes,  written  in  a  very  small  hand  about  the 
margins,  and  inserted  between  the  lines ;  nor  may  the  tran- 
scriber pass  negligently  even  its  corners,  otherwise  he  is  here 
assured  that  he  will  lose  some  useful  date,  or  the  hint  of  some 
curious  reference.  The  enthusiasm  and  diligence  of  Oldys, 
in  undertaking  a  repetition  of  his  first  lost  labour,  proved  to 
be  infinitely  greater  than  the  sense  of  his  unrequited  labours. 
Such  is  the  history  of  the  escapes,  the  changes,  and  the  fate 
of  a  volume,  which  forms  the  groundwork  of  the  most  curi- 
ous information  concerning  our  elder  poets,  and  to  which  we 
must  still  frequently  refer. 

In  this  variety  of  literary  arrangements,  which  we  must 
consider  as  single  works  in  a  progressive  state,  or  as  portions 
of  one  great  work  on  our  modern  literary  history,  it  may, 
perhaps,  be  justly  suspected,  that  Oldys,  in  the  delight  of 
perpetual  acquisition,  impeded  the  happier  labour  of  unity  of 
design  and  completeness  of  purpose.  He  was  not  a  Tirabo- 
schi — nor  even  a  Niceron  !  He  was  sometimes  chilled  by 
neglect,  and  by  "  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit,"  else  we 
should  not  now  have  to  count  over  a  barren  list  of  manuscript 
works ;  masses  of  literary  history,  of  which  the  existence  is 
even  doubtful. 

In  Kippis's  Biographia  Britannica,  we  find  frequent  refer- 
ences to  O.  M.,  Oldys's  Manuscripts.    Mr.  John  Taylor,  the 

*  This  copy  was  lent  by  Dr.  Birch  to  the  late  Bishop  of  Dromore,  who 
with  his  own  hand  carefnlly  transcribed  the  notes  into  an  interleaved  copy 
of  Langbaine,  divided  into  four  volumes,  which,  as  I  am  informed,  nar- 
rowly escaped  the  flames,  and  was  injured  by  the  water,  at  a  fire  at  North- 
umberland House.  His  lordship,  when  he  went  to  Ireland,  left  this  copy 
with  Mr.  Nichols,  for  the  use  of  the  projected  editions  of  the  Tatler,  the 
Spectator,  and  the  Guardian,  with  notes  and  illustrations;  of  which  I 
think  the  Tatler  only  has  appeared,  and  to  which  his  lordship  contributed 
some  valuable  communications. 


436    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


son  of  the  friend  and  executor  of  Oldys,  has  greatly  obliged 
me  with  all  his  recollections  of  this  man  of  letters ;  whose 
pursuits,  however,  were  in  no  manner  analogous  to  his,  and 
whom  he  could  only  have  known  in  youth.  By  him  I  learn, 
that  on  the  death  of  Oldys,  Dr.  Kippis,  editor  of  the  Biogra- 
phia  Britannica,  looked  over  these  manuscripts  at  Mr.  Tay- 
lor's house.  He  had  been  directed  to  this  discovery  by  the 
late  Bishop  of  Dromore,  whose  active  zeal  was  very  remark- 
able in  every  enterprise  to  enlarge  our  literary  history. 
Kippis  was  one  who,  in  some  degree,  might  have  estimated 
their  literary  value ;  but,  employed  by  commercial  men,  and 
negotiating  with  persons  who  neither  comprehended  their 
nature,  nor  affixed  any  value  to  them,  the  editor  of  the 
Biographia  found  Oldys's  Manuscripts  an  easy  purchase  for 
his  employer,  the  late  Mr.  Cadell ;  and  the  twenty  guineas, 
perhaps,  served  to  bury  their  writer!  Mr.  Taylor  says, 
"  The  manuscripts  of  Oldys  were  not  so  many  as  might  be 
expected  from  so  indefatigable  a  writer.  They  consisted 
chiefly  of  short  extracts  from  books,  and  minutes  of  dates, 
and  were  thought  worth  'purchasing  by  the  doctor.  I  remem- 
ber the  manuscripts  well ;  though  Oldys  was  not  the  author, 
but  rather  recorder."  Such  is  the  statement  and  the  opinion 
of  a  writer,  whose  effusions  are  of  a  gayer  sort.  But  the 
researches  of  Oldys  must  not  be  estimated  by  this  standard ; 
with  him  a  single  line  was  the  result  of  many  a  day  of  re- 
search, and  a  leaf  of  scattered  hints  would  supply  more 
original  knowledge  than  some  octavos,  fashioned  out  by  the 
hasty  gilders  and  varnishers  of  modern  literature.  These 
discoveries  occupy  small  space  to  the  eye ;  but  large  works 
are  composed  out  of  them.  This  very  lot  of  Oldys's  manu- 
scripts was,  indeed,  so  considerable  in  the  judgment  of  Kippis, 
that  he  has  described  them  as  "a  large  and  useful  body  of 
biographical  materials,  left  by  Mr.  Oldys."  Were  these  the 
"  Biographical  Institutes  "  Oldys  refers  to  among  his  manu- 
scripts? "The  late  Mr.  Malone,"  continues  Mr.  Taylor, 
"  told  me  that  he  had  seen  all  Oldys's  manuscripts  ;  so  I  pre- 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


437 


sume  they  are  in  the  hands  of  Cadell  and  Davie?."  Have 
they  met  with  the  fate  of  sucked  oranges  ? — and  how  much 
of  Malone  may  we  owe  to  Oldys  ? 

This  information  enabled  me  to  trace  the  manuscripts  of 
Oldys  to  Dr.  Kippis  ;  but  it  cast  me  among  the  booksellers, 
who  do  not  value  manuscripts  which  no  one  can  print.  I 
discovered,  by  the  late  Mr.  Davies,  that  the  direction  of  that 
hapless  work  in  our  literary  history,  with  its  whole  treasure 
of  manuscripts,  had  been  consigned,  by  Mr.  Cadell,  to  the  late 
George  Robinson,  and  that  the  successor  of  Dr.  Kippis  had 
been  the  late  Doctor  George  Gregory.  Again  I  repeat,  the 
history  of  voluminous  works  is  a  melancholy  office  ;  every  one 
concerned  with  them  no  longer  can  be  found !  The  esteemed 
relict  of  Dr.  Gregory,  with  a  friendly  promptitude,  gratified 
my  anxious  inquiries,  and  informed  me,  that  "  she  perfectly 
recollects  a  mass  of  papers,  such  as  I  described,  being  re- 
turned, on  the  death  of  Dr.  Gregory,  to  the  house  of  Wilkie 
and  Robinson,  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1809."  I  applied 
to  this  house,  who,  after  some  time,  referred  me  to  Mr.  John 
Robinson,  the  representative  of  his  late  father,  and  with 
whom  all  the  papers  of  the  former  partnership  were  depos- 
ited. But  Mr.  John  Robinson  has  terminated  my  inquiries, 
by  his  civility  in  promising  to  comply  with  them,  and  his 
pertinacity  in  not  doing  so.  He  may  have  injured  his  own 
interest  in  not  trading  with  my  curiosity.*  It  was  fortunate 
for  the  nation,  that  George  Vertue's  mass  of  manuscripts 
escaped  the  fate  of  Oldys's  ;  had  the  possessor  proved  as 
indolent,  Horace  Walpole  would  not  have  been  the  writer 
of  his  most  valuable  work,  and  we  should  have  lost  the 

*  I  know  that  not  only  this  lot  of  Oldys's  manuscripts,  but  a  great  quan- 
tity of  original  contributions  of  whole  lives,  intended  for  the  Biographia 
Britannica,  must  lie  together,  unless  they  have  been  destroyed  as  waste 
paper.  These  biographical  and  literary  curiosities  were  often  supplied  by 
the  families  or  friends  of  eminent  persons.  Some  may,  perhaps,  have  been 
reclaimed  by  their  owners.  I  am  informed  there  was  among  them  an  in- 
teresting collection  of  the  correspondence  of  Locke;  and  I  could  mention 
several  lives  which  were  prepared. 


438    LIFE  A^D  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


"Anecdotes  of  Painting,"  of  which  Vertue  had  collected  the 
materials. 

Of  a  life  consumed  in  such  literary  activity  we  should  have 
known  more  had  the  Diaries  of  Oldys  escaped  destruction. 
"  One  habit  of  my  father's  old  friend,  William  Oldys,"  says 
Mr.  Taylor,  "  was  that  of  keeping  a  diary,  and  recording  in 
it  every  day  all  the  events  that  occurred,  and  all  his  engage- 
ments, and  the  employment  of  his  time.  I  have  seen  piles 
of  these  books,  but  know  not  what  became  of  them."  The 
existence  of  such  diaries  is  confirmed  by  a  sale  catalogue  of 
Thomes  Davies,  the  literary  bookseller,  who  sold  many  of 
the  books  and  some  manuscripts  of  Oldys,  which  appear  to 
have  been  dispersed  in  various  libraries.  I  find  Lot  "  3627, 
Mr.  Oldys's  Diary,  containing  several  observations  relating 
to  books,  characters,  &c. ;  "  a  single  volume,  which  appears 
to  have  separated  from  the  "  piles  "  which  Mr.  Taylor  once 
witnessed.  The  literary  diary  of  Oldys  would  have  exhib- 
ited the  mode  of  his  pursuits,  and  the  results  of  his  discover- 
ies. One  of  these  volumes  I  have  fortunately  discovered, 
and  a  singularity  in  this  writer's  feelings  throws  a  new  inter- 
est over  such  diurnal  records.  Oldys  was  apt  to  give  utter- 
ance with  his  pen  to  his  most  secret  emotions.  Querulous  or 
indignant,  his  honest  simplicity  confided  to  the  paper  before 
him  such  extemporaneous  soliloquies,  and  I  have  found  him 
hiding  in  the  very  corners  of  his  manuscripts  his  "  secret 
sorrows." 

A  few  of  these  slight  memorials  of  his  feelings  will  exhibit 
a  sort  of  Silhouette  likeness  traced  by  his  own  hand,  when  at 
times  the  pensive  man  seems  to  have  contemplated  his  own 
shadow.  Oldys  would  throw  down  in  verses,  whose  humility 
or  quaintness  indicates  their  origin,  or  by  some  pithy  adage, 
or  apt  quotation,  or  recording  anecdote,  his  self-advice,  or  his 
self-r egrets  ! 

Oppressed  by  a  sense  of  tasks  so  unprofitable  to  himself, 
while  his  days  were  often  passed  in  trouble  and  in  prison, 
he  breathes  a  self-reproach  in  one  of  these  profound  reflec- 


OLDYS  AND  HTS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


439 


tions  of  melancholy  which  so  often  startle  the  man  of  study, 
who  truly  discovers  that  life  is  too  limited  to  acquire  real 
knowledge,  with  the  ambition  of  dispensing  it  to  the  world  : — 

"  I  say,  who  too  long  in  these  cobwebs  lurks, 
Is  always  whetting  tools,  but  never  works." 

In  one  of  the  corners  of  his  note-books  I  find  this  curious 
but  sad  reflection : — 

"Alas !  this  is  but  the  apron  of  a  fig-leaf— but  the  curtain  of  a  cobweb." 

Sometimes  he  seems  to  have  anticipated  the  fate  of  that 
obscure  diligence,  which  was  pursuing  discoveries  reserved 
for  others  to  use  : — 

"  He  heapeth  up  riches,  and  knoweth  not  who  shall  gather  them." 
"  Fond  treasurer  of  these  stores,  behold  thy  fate 
In  Psalm  the  thirty-ninth,  6,  7,  and  8." 

Sometimes  he  checks  the  eager  ardour  of  his  pen,  and  re- 
minds himself  of  its  repose,  in  Latin,  Italian,  and  English. 

 "  Non  vi,  sed  saepe  cadendo. 

Assai  presto  si  fa  quel  che  si  fa  bene." 

"  Some  respite  best  recovers  what  we  need, 
Discreetly  baiting  gives  the  journey  speed." 

There  was  a  thoughtless  kindness  in  honest  Oldys  ;  and 
his  simplicity  of  character,  as  I  have  observed,  was  prac- 
tised on  by  the  artful  or  the  ungenerous.  We  regret  to  find 
the  following  entry  concerning  the  famous  collector,  James 
West  :— 

"  I.  gave  above  threescore  letters  of  Dr.  Davenant  to  his  son,  who  was 
envoy  at  Frankfort  in  1703  to  1708,  to  Mr.  James  West,*  with  one  hundred 
and  fifty  more,  about  Christmas,  1746 :  but  the  same  fate  they  found  as 
grain  that  is  sown  in  barren  ground." 

*  This  collection,  and  probably  the  other  letters,  have  come  down  to  us 
no  doubt,  with  the  manuscripts  of  this  collector,  purchased  for  the  British 
Museum.  The  correspondence  of  Dr.  Davenant,  the  political  writer,  with 
his  son,  the  envoy,  turns  on  one  perpetual  topic,  his  son's  and  his  own  ad- 
vancement in  the  state. 


440     LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


Such  is  the  plaintive  record  by  which  Oldys  relieved  him- 
self of  a  groan !  We  may  smile  at  the  simplicity  of  the 
following  narrative,  where  poor  Oldys  received  manuscripts 
in  lieu  of  money  : — 

"  Old  Counsellor  Fane,  of  Colchester,  who  in  forma  pauperis,  deceived 
me  of  a  good  sum  of  money  which  he  owed  me,  and  not  long  after  set  up 
his  chariot,  gave  me  a  parcel  of  manuscripts,  and  promised  me  others, 
which  he  never  gave  me,  nor  any  thing  else,  besides  a  barrel  of  oysters,  and 
a  manuscript  copy  of  Randolph's  poems,  an  original,  as  he  said,  with  many 
additions,  being  devolved  to  him  as  the  author's  relation." 

There  was  no  end  to  his  aids  and  contributions  to  every 
author  or  bookseller  who  applied  to  him ;  yet  he  had  reason 
to  complain  of  both  while  they  were  using  his  invaluable, 
but  not  valued  knowledge.  Here  is  one  of  these  diurnal 
entries : — 

"  I  lent  the  tragical  lives  and  deaths  of  the  famous  pirates,  Ward  and 
Dansiker,  4to.,  London,  1612,  by  Robt.  Daborn,  alias  Dabourne,  to  Mr.  T. 
Lediard,  when  he  was  writing  his  Naval  History,  and  he  never  returned  it. 
See  Howell's  Letters  of  them." 

In  another,  when  his  friend  T.  Hayward  was  collecting,  for 
his  "  British  Muse,"  the  most  exquisite  common-places  of  our 
old  English  dramatists,  a  compilation  which  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  ordinary  ones,  Oldys  not  only  assisted  in  the 
labour,  but  drew  up  a  curious  introduction  with  a  knowledge 
and  love  of  the  subject  which  none  but  himself  possessed. 
But  so  little  were  these  researches  then  understood,  that  we 
find  Oldys,  in  a  moment  of  vexatious  recollection,  and  in  a 
corner  of  one  of  the  margins  of  his  Langbaine,  accidentally 
preserving  an  extraordinary  circumstance  attending  this  cu- 
rious dissertation.  Oldys  having  completed  this  elaborate 
introduction,  "  the  penurious  publisher  insisted  on  leaving  out 
one  third  part,  which  happened  to  be  the  best  matter  in  it, 
because  he  would  have  it  contracted  into  one  sheet  f  "  Poor 
Oldys  never  could  forget  the  fate  of  this  elaborate  Disserta- 
tion on  all  the  collections  of  English  poetry ;  I  am  confident 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS.  44  \ 

that  I  have  seen  some  volume  which  was  formerly  Old)  "  , 
and  afterwards  Thomas  Warton's,  in  the  possession  of  my 
intelligent  friend  Mr.  Douce,  in  the  fly-leaf  of  which  Oldys 
has  expressed  himself  in  these  words:  "In  my  historical 
and  critical  review  of  all  the  collections  of  this  kind,  it  would 
have  made  a  sheet  and  a  half  or  two  sheets ;  but  they  for 
sordid  gain,  and  to  save  a  little  expense  in  print  and  paper, 
got  Mr.  John  Campbell  to  cross  it  and  cramp  it,  and  play  the 
devil  with  it,  till  they  squeezed  it  into  less  compass  than  a 
sheet."  This  is  a  loss  which  we  may  never  recover.  The 
curious  book-knowledge  of  this  singular  man  of  letters,  those 
stores  of  which  he  was  the  fond  treasurer,  as  he  says  with 
such  tenderness  for  his  pursuits,  were  always  ready  to  be 
cast  into  the  forms  of  a  dissertation  or  an  introduction  ;  and 
when  Morgan  published  his  Collection  of  Rare  Tracts,  the 
friendly  hand  of  Oldys  furnished  "  A  Dissertation  upon  Pam- 
phlets, in  a  Letter  to  a  Nobleman ; "  probably  the  Earl  of 
Oxford,  a  great  literary  curiosity ;  and  in  the  Harleian 
Collection  he  has  given  a  Catalogue  raisonne  of  six  hundred. 
When  Mrs.  Cooper  attempted  "  The  Muse's  Library/'  the 
first  essay  which  influenced  the  national  taste  to  return  to  our 
deserted  poets  in  our  most  poetical  age,  it  was  Oldys  who 
only  could  have  enabled  this  lady  to  perform  that  task  so 
well.  When  Curll,  the  publisher,  to  help  out  one  of  his 
hasty  compilations,  a  "  History  of  the  Stage,"  repaired,  like 
all  the  world,  to  Oldys,  whose  kindness  could  not  resist  the 
importunity  of  this  busy  publisher,  he  gave  him  a  life  of  Nell 
Gwynn ;  while  at  the  same  moment  Oldys  could  not  avoid 
noticing,  in  one  of  his  usual  entries,  an  intended  work  on  the 
stage,  which  we  seem  never  to  have  had,  "  Dick  Leveridges 
History  of  the  Stage  and  Actors  in  his  own  Time,  for  these 
forty  or  fifty  years  past,  as  he  told  me  he  had  composed,  is 
likely  to  prove,  whenever  it  shall  appear,  a  more  perfect 
work."  I  might  proceed  with  many  similar  gratuitous  con- 
tributions with  which  he  assisted  his  contemporaries.  Oldys 
should  have  been  constituted  the  reader  for  the  nation.  His 


442    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


Comptes  Rendus  of  books  and  manuscripts  are  still  held  pre- 
cious ;  but  his  useful  and  curious  talent  had  sought  the  public 
patronage  in  vain  !  From  one  of  his  *  Diaries,"  which  has 
escaped  destruction,  I  transcribe  some  interesting  passages 
ad  verbum. 

The  reader  is  here  presented  with  a  minute  picture  of 
those  invisible  occupations  which  pass  in  the  study  of  a  man 
of  letters.  There  are  those  who  may  be  surprised,  as  well  as 
amused,  in  discovering  how  all  the  business,  even  to  the  very 
disappointments  and  pleasures  of  active  life,  can  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  silent  chamber  of  a  recluse  student ;  but  there 
are  others  who  will  not  read  without  emotion  the  secret 
thoughts  of  him  who,  loving  literature  with  its  purest  passion, 
scarcely  repines  at  being  defrauded  of  his  just  fame,  and 
leaves  his  stores  for  the  after-age  of  his  more  gifted  heirs. 
Thus  we  open  one  of  Oldys's  literary  days : — 

"  I  was  informed  that  day  by  Mr.  Tho.  Odell's  daughter,  that  her  father, 
"who  was  deputy  inspector  and  licenser  of  the  plays,  died  24  May,  1749,  at 
his  house  in  Chappel-street,  Westminster,  aged  58  years.  He  was  writing 
a  history  of  the  characters  he  had  observed,  and  conferences  he  had  had 
with  many  eminent  persons  he  knew  in  his  time.  He  was  a  great  observator 
of  every  thing  curious  in  the  conversations  of  his  acquaintance,  and  his 
own  conversation  was  a  living  chronicle  of  the  remarkable  intrigues,  ad- 
ventures, sayings,  stories,  writings,  &c.  of  many  of  the  quality,  poets,  and 
other  authors,  players,  booksellers,  &c.  who  flourished  especially  in  the 
present  century.  He  had  been  a  popular  man  at  elections,  and  sometimes 
master  of  the  playhouse  in  Goodman's  Fields,  but  latterly  was  forced  to 
live  reserved  and  retired  by  reason  of  his  debts.  He  published  two  or  three 
dramatic  pieces,  one  was  the  Patron,  on  the  story  of  Lord  Romney. 

"  Q.  of  his  da.  to  restore  me  Eustace  Budgell's  papers,  and  to  get  a  sight 
of  her  father's. 

"  Have  got  the  one,  and  seen  the  other. 

"July  31.— Was  at  Mrs.  Odell's;  she  returned  me  Mr.  Budgell's  papers. 
Saw  some  of  her  husband's  papers,  mostly  poems  in  favour  of  the  ministry, 
and  against  Mr.  Pope.  One  of  them,  printed  by  the  late  Sir  Robert  Wal- 
pole's  encouragement,  who  gave  him  ten  guineas  for  writing  and  as  much 
for  the  expense  of  printing  it ;  but  through  his  advice  it  was  never  pub- 
lished, because  it  might  hurt  his  interest  with  Lord  Chesterfield,  and  some 
other  noblemen,  who  favoured  Mr.  Pope  for  his  fine  genius.  The  tract  I 
liked  best  of  his  writings  was  the  history  of  his  playhouse  in  Goodman's 
Fields.    (Remember  that  which  was  published  against  that  playhouse, 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


443 


which  I  have  entered  in  my  London  Catalogue.  Letter  to  Sir  Rio.  Procas, 
lord  mayor,  &c.  8vo.  1730.) 

"  Saw  nothing  of  the  history  of  his  conversations  with  ingenious  men  ; 
his  characters,  tales,  jests,  and  intrigues  of  them,  of  which  no  man  was 
better  furnished  with  them.  She  thinks  she  has  some  papers  of  these,  and 
promises  to  look  them  out,  and  also  to  inquire  afrer  Mr.  Griffin  of  the  lord 
chamberlain's  office,  that  I  may  get  a  search  made  about  Spenser. 

So  intent  was  Oldys  on  these  literary  researches  that  we 
see,  by  the  last  words  of  this  entry,  how  in  hunting  after  one 
sort  of  game,  his  undivided  zeal  kept  its  eye  on  another. 
One  of  his  favourite  subjects  was  the  realizing  of  original 
discoveries  respecting  Spenser  and  Shakspeare ;  of  whom, 
perhaps,  to  our  shame,  as  it  is  to  our  vexation,  it  may  be  said 
that  two  of  our  master-poets  are  those  of  whom  we  know  the 
least!  Oldys  once  flattered  himself  that  he  should  be  able 
to  have  given  the  world  a  life  of  Shakspeare.  Mr.  John 
Taylor  informs  me,  that  "  Oldys  had  contracted  to  supply  ten 
years  of  the  life  of  Shakspeare  unknown  to  the  biographers, 
with  one  Walker,  a  bookseller  in  the  Strand  ;  and  as  Oldys 
did  not  live  to  fulfil  the  engagement,  my  father  was  obliged 
to  return  to  "Walker  twenty  guineas  which  he  had  advanced 
on  the  work."  That  interesting  narrative  is  noiv  hopeless  for 
us.  Yet,  by  the  solemn  contract  into  which  Oldys  had  en- 
tered, and  from  his  strict  integrity,  it  might  induce  one  to 
suspect  that  he  had  made  positive  discoveries  which  are  now 
irrecoverable. 

We  may  observe  the  manner  of  his  anxious  inquiries  about 
Spenser  : — 

"  Ask  Sir  Peter  Thompson  if  it  were  improper  to  try  if  Lord  Effingham 
Howard  would  procure  the  pedigrees  in  the  Herald's  office,  to  be  seen  for 
Edmund  Spenser's  parentage  or  family?  or  how  he  was  related  to  Sir  John 
Spenser  of  Althorpe,  in  Northamptonshire  ?  to  three  of  whose  daughters,  who 
all  married  nobility,  Spenser  dedicates  three  of  his  poems. 

"  Of  Mr.  Vertue,  to  examine  Stowe's  memorandum-book.  Look  more 
carefully  for  the  year  when  Spenser's  monument  was  raised,  or  between 
which  years  the  entry  stands — 1623  and  1626. 

"  Sir  Clement  Cottrell's  book  about  Spenser. 

"  Captain  Power,  to  know  if  he  has  heard  from  Capt.  Spenser  about  my 
letter  of  inquiries  relating  to  Edward  Spenser. 


444    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


"  Of  Whiston,  to  examine  if  my  remarks  on  Spenser  are  complete  ns  to 
the  press — Yes. 

Remember,  when  I  see  Mr.  W.  Thompson,  to  inquire  whether  he  has 
printed  in  any.  of  his  works  any  other  character  of  our  old  poets  than  those 
of  Spenser  and  Shakspeare ;  *  and  to  get  the  liberty  of  a  visit  at  Kentish 
Town,  to  see  his  Collection  of  Robert  Greene's  Works,  in  about  four  large 
volumes  quarto.  He  commonly  published  a  pamphlet  every  term,  as  his 
acquaintance  Tom  Nash  informs  us." 

Two  or  three  other  memorials  may  excite  a  smile  at  his 
peculiar  habits  of  study,  and  unceasing  vigilance  to  draw  from 
original  sources  of  information. 

"  Dryderi's  dream,  at  Lord  Exeter's,  at  Burleigh,  while  he  was  translat- 
ing Virgil,  as  Signior  Verrio,  then  painting  there,  related  it  to  the  York- 
shire painter,  of  whom  I  had  it,  lies  in  the  parchment  book  in  quarto,  designed 
for  his  life." 

At  a  subsequent  period  Oldys  inserts,  "  Now  entered 
therein."  Malone  quotes  this  very  memorandum,  which  he 
discovered  in  Oldys 's  Largbaine,  to  show  Dry  den  had  some 
confidence  in  Oneirocriticism,  and  supposed  that  future  events 
were  sometimes  prognosticated  by  dreams.  Malone  adds, 
"  Where  either  the  loose  prophetic  leaf,  or  the  parchment 
booh  now  is,  I  know  not."  f 

Unquestionably  we  have  incurred  a  great  loss  in  Oldys's 
collections  for  Dry  den's  Life,  which  are  very  extensive  ;  such 
a  mass  of  literary  history  cannot  have  perished  unless  by 
accident ;  and  I  suspect  that  many  of  Oldys's  manuscripts 
are  in  the  possession  of  individuals  who  are  not  acquainted 
with  his  handwriting,  which  may  be  easily  verified. 

"  To  search  the  old  papers  in  one  of  my  large  deal  boxes  for  Dryden's 
letter  of  thanks  to  my  father,  for  some  communication  relating  to  Plutarch, 
while  they  and  others  were  publishing  a  translation  of  Plutarch's  Lives, 

*  William  Thompson,  the  poet  of"  Sickness,"  and  other  poems;  a  warm 
lover  of  our  elder  bards,  and  no  vulgar  imitator  of  Spenser.  He  was  the 
revivor  of  Bishop  Hall's  Satires,  in  1753,  by  an  edition  which  had  been 
more  fortunate  if  conducted  by  his  friend  Oldys,  for  the  text  is  unfaithful, 
though  the  edition  followed  was  one  borrowed  from  Lord  Oxford's  library 
probably  by  the  aid  of  Oldys. 

f  Malone's  Life  of  Dryden,  p.  420. 


OLDYS  AND  TIIS  MANUSCRIPTS. 


415 


in  five  volumes  8vo.  1683.  It  is  copied  in  theyclhnv  book  for  Dryden's  Life, 
in  which  there  are  about  150  transcriptions  in  prose  and  verse,  relating  to 
the  life,  character,  and  writings  of  Dryden." — u  Js  England's  Remem- 
brancer extracted  out  of  my  obit,  (obituary)  into  my  remarks  on  him  in 
the  poetical  bnyV 

M  My  extracts  in  the  parchment  budget  about  Denham's  seat  and  family 
in  Surrey." 

"  My  white  vellum  pocket-book,  bordered  with  gold,  for  the  extract  from 
'  Groans  of  Great  Britain'  about  Butler." 

"  See  my  account  of  the  great  yews  in  Tankersley's  park,  while  Sir  R. 
Fanshaw  was  prisoner  in  the  lodge  there;  especially  Talbot's  yew,  which 
a  man  on  horseback  might  turn  about  in,  in  my  botanical  budget.1'' 

"  This  Donald  Lupton  I  have  mentioned  in  my  catalogue  of  all  the  books 
and  pamphlets  relative  to  London  in  folio,  begun  anno  1740,  and  in  which 
I  have  now,  1746,  entered  between  300  and  400  articles,  besides  remarks, 
&c.  Now,  in  June,  1748,  between  400  and  500  articles.  Now,  in  October, 
1750,  six  hundred  and  thirty-six."  * 

There  remains  to  be  told  an  anecdote,  which  shows  that 
Pope  greatly  regarded  our  literary  antiquary.  "  Oldys,"  says 
my  friend,  "  was  one  of  the  librarians  of  the  Earl  of  Oxford, 
and  he  used  to  tell  a  story  of  the  credit  which  he  obtained  as 
a  scholar,  by  setting  Pope  right  in  a  Latin  quotation,  which 
he  made  at  the  earl's  table.  He  did  not,  however,  as  I  re- 
member, boast  of  having  been  admitted  as  a  guest  at  the 
table,  but  as  happening  to  be  in  the  room."  Why  might  not 
Oldys,  however,  have  been  seated,  at  least,  below  the  salt ! 
It  would  do  no  honour  to  either  party  to  suppose  that  Oldys 
stood  among  the  menials.    The  truth  is,  there  appears  to 

*  This  is  one  of  Oldys1  s  Mmuscripts  ;  a  thick  folio  of  titles,  which  has 
been  made  to  do  its  duty,  with  small  thanks  from  those  who  did  not  care 
to  praise  the  service  which  they  derived  from  it.  It  passed  from  Dr. 
Berkenhout  to  George  Steevens,  who  lent  it  to  Gough.  It  was  sold  for  five 
guineas.  The  useful  work  of  ten  years  of  attention  given  to  it!  The  an- 
tiquary Gough  alludes  to  it  with  his  usual  discernment.  "Among  these 
titles  of  books  and  pamphlets  about  London  are  many  purely  historical,  and 
many  of  too  low  a  kind  to  rank  under  the  head  of  topography  and  history." 
Thus  the  design  of  Oldys,  in  forming  this  elaborate  collection,  is  condemned 
by  trying  it  by  the  limited  object  of  the  topographer's  view.  This  cata- 
logue remains  a  desideratum,  were  it  printed  entire  as  collected  by  Oldys, 
not  merely  for  the  topography  of  the  metropolis,  but  for  its  relation  to  its 
manners,  domestic  annals,  events,  and  persons  connected  with  its  history. 


44G    LIFE  AND  HABITS  OF  A  LITERARY  ANTIQUARY. 


have  existed  a  confidential  intercourse  between  Pope  and 
Oldys  ;  and  of  this  I  shall  give  a  remarkable  proof.  In 
those  fragments  of  Oldys,  preserved  as  "  additional  anecdotes 
of  Shakspeare,"  in  Steevens's  and  Malone's  editions,  Oldys 
mentions  a  story  of  Davenant,  which  he  adds,  "  Mr.  Pope 
told  me  at  the  Earl  of  Oxford's  table  !  "  And  further  relates 
a  conversation  which  passed  between  them.  Nor  is  this  all; 
for  in  Oldys's  Langbaine  he  put  down  this  memorandum  in 
the  article  of  Shakspeare — "  Remember  what  I  observed  to 
my  Lord  Oxford  for  Mr.  Pope's  use  out  of  Cowley's  preface." 
Malone  appears  to  have  discovered  this  observation  of  Cow- 
ley's which  is  curious  enough  and  very  ungrateful  to  that 
commentator's  ideas  :  it  is  "  to  prune  and  lop  away  the  old 
withered  branches  "  in  the  new  editions  of  Shakspeare  and 
other  ancient  poets  !  "  Pope  adopted,"  says  Malone,  "  this 
very  unwarrantable  idea ;  Oldys  was  the  person  who  sug- 
gested to  Pope  the  singular  course  he  pursued  in  his  edition 
of  Shakspeare."  Without  touching  on  the  felicity  or  the 
danger  of  this  new  system  of  republishing  Shakspeare,  one 
may  say  that  if  many  passages  were  struck  out,  Shakspeare 
would  not  be  injured,  for  many  of  them  were  never  composed 
by  that  great  bard  !  There  not  only  existed  a  literary  intimacy 
between  Oldys  and  Pope,  but  our  poet  adopting  his  suggestions 
on  so  important  an  occasion,  evinces  how  highly  he  esteemed 
his  judgment ;  and  unquestionably  Pope  had  often  been  de- 
lighted by  Oldys  with  the  history  of  his  predecessors,  and  the 
curiosities  of  English  poetry. 

I  have  now  introduced  the  reader  to  Oldys  sitting  amidst 
his  "poetical  bags,"  his  "parchment  biographical  budgets," 
his  "  catalogues,"  and  his  "  diaries,"  often  venting  a  solitary 
groan,  or  active  in  some  fresh  inquiry.  Such  is  the  Silhouette 
of  this  prodigy  of  literary  curiosity ! 

The  very  existence  of  Oldys's  manuscripts  continues  to  be 
of  an  ambiguous  nature  ;  referred  to,  quoted,  and  transcribed, 
we  can  but  seldom  turn  to  the  originals.  These  masses  of 
curious  knowledge,  dispersed  or  lost,  have  enriched  an  after- 


OLDYS  AND  HIS  MANUSCRIPTS.  447 

race,  who  have  often  picked  up  the  spoil  and  claimed  the 
victory,  but  it  was  Oldys  who  had  fought  the  battle  ! 

Oldys  affords  one  more  example  how  life  is  often  closed 
amidst  discoveries  and  acquisitions.  The  literary  antiquary, 
when  he  has  attempted  to  embody  his  multiplied  inquiries, 
and  to  finish  his  scattered  designs,  has  found  that  the  labor 
absque  labore,  "the  labour  void  of  labour,"  as  the  in- 
scription on  the  library  of  Florence  finely  describes  the  re- 
searches of  literature,  has  dissolved  his  days  in  the  volup- 
tuousness of  his  curiosity  ;  and  that  too  often,  like  the  hunter 
in  the  heat  of  the  chase,  while  he  disdained  the  prey  which 
lay  before  him,  he  was  still  stretching  onwards  to  catch  the 
fugitive ! 

Transvolat  in  medio  posita,  et  fugieniia  capiat. 

At  the  close  of  every  century,  in  this  growing  world  of 
books,  may  an  Oldys  be  the  reader  for  the  nation !  Should 
he  be  endowed  with  a  philosophical  spirit,  and  combine  the 
genius  of  his  own  times  with  that  of  the  preceding,  he  will 
hold  in  his  hand  the  chain  of  human  thoughts,  and,  like  an- 
other Bayle,  become  the  historian  of  the  human  mind ! 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abelard,  ranks  among  the  heretics, 
i.  212;  book  condemned  as  his  writ- 
ten by  another,  213 ;  absolution  grant- 
ed to,  ib. ;  wrote  and  sung  finely,  214 ; 
raises  the  school  ol'the  Paraclete,  215. 

Abram-men,  iii.  47,  and  note,  ib. 

Abridgers,  objections  to,  and  recom- 
mendations of,  ii.  67 ;  Bayle's  advice 
to,  68;  now  slightly  regarded,  ib. ; 
instructions  to,  quoted  from  the  Book 
of  Maccabees,  69. 

Absence  of  mind,  anecdotes  of,  i.  284, 
285. 

Absolute  monarchy,  search  for  prece- 
dents to  maintain,  iv.  3S9,  note. 

Abstraction  of  mind,  instances  of, 
amongst  great  men,  ii.  221-224; 
sonnet  on,  by  Metastasio,  223,  224. 

Academy,  the  French,  some  account 
of,  ii.  85-89;  visit  of  Christina  Queen 
of  Sweden  to,  85;  of  Literature,  de- 
signed in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne, 
iii.  158 ;  abortive  attempts  to  estab- 
lish various,  ib.;  disadvantages  of, 
ib. ;  arguments  of  the  advocates  for, 
ib. ;  should  be  designed  by  individu- 
als, 159;  French  origin  of,  159-162; 
origin  of  the  Royal  Society,  162-164; 
ridiculous  titles  of  Italian,  242;  some 
account  of  the  Arcadian,  and  its  ser- 
vice to  literature,  245;  derivation  of 
its  title,  247 ;  of  the  Colombaria,  ib. ; 
indications  of,  in  England,  248 ;  early 
rise  of  among  the  Italians,  249 ;  es- 
tablishment of,  the  "Academy,"  250 ; 
suppressed,  and  its  members  perse- 
cuted, 250-251;  of  the  "Oziosi,"  252  ; 
suppression  of  many,  at  Florence  and 
Sienna,  253;  considerations  of  the 
reason  of  the  Italian  fantastical  titles 
of,  &c.  255. 

Acajou  and  Zirphile,  a  whimsical  fairy 
tale,  iii.  43-46. 

Accademia  of  Bologna  originated  with 
Lodovico  Caracci,  iii.  149. 

Accident,  instances  of  the  pursuits 
of  great  men  directed  by,  i.  142. 

Acephali,  iv.  79,  and  note,  ib. 

Acrostics,  i.  388. 

vol.  iv.  29 


Actors,  tragic,  i.  334;  who  have  died 
martyrs  to  their  tragic  characters, 
335,  should  be  nursed  in  the  laps  of 
queens,  336;  anecdotes  of,  336,  337. 

Addison,  silent  among  strangers,  i.165. 

Adriani,  his  continuation  of  Guicciar- 
dini's  History,  iv.  65. 

Advice,  good,of  a  literary  sinner,  ii.  12. 

Agates,  presenting  representations  of 
natural  forms,  i.  330. 

Agreda,  Maria,  wrote  the  Life  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  ii.  31. 

Albertus  Magnus,  his  opinion  con- 
cerning books  of  magic,  iv.  180;  his 
brazen  man,  182 ;  his  entertainment 
of  the  Earl  of  Holland,  191. 

Alchymists,  results  of  their  opera- 
tions, iv.  184;  their  cautious  secrecy, 
ib;  discoveries  by,  184, 185. 

Alchymy,  anecdotes  of  professors  of, 

i.  374,  375 ;  Henry  VI.  endeavoured 
to  recruit  his  coffers  by,  375;  pro- 
fessors of,  called  multipliers,  370; 
books  of,  pious  frauds,  ib.;  Elias 
Ashmole  rather  the  historian  of,  than 
an  adept  in,  377 ;  opinions  of  modern 
chemists  on,  379. 

Alexandria,  library  of,  i.  49,  50 ;  De- 
metrius Phalereus,  its  industrious 
and  skilful  librarian,  50;  original 
manuscripts  of  vEschyhis,  Sopho- 
cles, and  Euripides  procured  for,  ib. ; 
destruction  of,  101,  102. 

Ambassadors,  anecdotes  of  frivolous 
points  of  etiquette  insisted  on  by, 

ii.  376-388. 

Amilcar,  the  author  of  the  Second 
Punic  War,  iv.  20. 

Amriiigouries,  i.  391. 

Amusement,  periodical,  during  study, 
a  standing  rule  among  the  Jesuits, 
i.  90;  various,  practised  by  different 
celebrated  men,  90-93. 

Anagrams,  ii.  389,  ii.  416,  are  classed 
among  the  Hebrews  with  the  caba- 
listic sciences,  416;  Platonic  notions 
of,  ib. ;  specimens  of  Greek,  417; 
several  examples  of  curious,  417- 
419 ;  amusing  anecdotes  concerning, 
419-422, 

Andreini,  an  actor  and  author  of  ir- 


450 


INDEX. 


regular  Italian  comedies,  ii.  314;  a 
drama  of  his  gave  the  first  idea  to 
Milton  of  his  "Paradise  Lost,"  ib. 

Anecdotes,  literary,  their  impor- 
tance, iii.  34;  Dr.  .Johnson's  defence 
of,  35 ;  the  absurdity  of  many  trans- 
mitted by  biographers,  ib.;  general 
remarks  on,  36,  37. 

Anglksea,  Earl  of,  his  MSS.  sup- 
pressed, iii.  205. 

Animals,  influence  of  music  on,  i. 
361-364. 

Annius  of  Viterbo  published  seventeen 
books  of  pretended  antiquities,  iv. 
207 ;  and  afterwards  a  commentary, 
208;  caused  a  literary  war,  ib. 

Antediluvian  researches,  i.  394,  395. 

Anti,  a  favourite  prefix  to  books  of 
controversy,  i.  413. 

Antiquariks,  Society  of,  inquiry  into 
its  origin  and  progress,  iii.  164-^167. 

Antony,  Marc,  anecdote  of,  ii.  163. 

Apparel,  excess  in,  proclamation 
against,  by  Elizabeth,  iv.  288. 

Apples  grafted  on  mulberry  stocks, 

ii.  332,  note. 
Archesteatus,  a  celebrated  culinary 

philosopher,  ii.  434. 
Arguments,  invented  by  a  machine, 

iii.  171. 

Ariosto,  his  merits  disputed  in  Italy, 
ii.  54;  public  preference  given  to,  by 
the  Accademia  della  Crusca,  ib. ;  his 
verses  sung  by  the  gondoliers,  56. 

Aristocrat,  a  nickname,  iii.  412. 

Aristotle,  account  of  criticisms  on,  i. 
75 ;  fate  of  his  library,  108 ;  Arabic 
commentaries  on,  116;  rage  for,  ib. ; 
his  opinions  on  sneezing,  192 ;  letter 
of  Philip  of  Macedon  to,  209;  de- 
scription of  the  person  and  manners 
of,  ib.;  will  of,  210;  studied  under 
Plato,  ib. ;  parallel  between  him  and 
Plato,  by  Rapin,  ib. ;  anecdote  con- 
cerning him  and  Plato,  211;  raises  a 
school,  ib. ;  attacked  by  Xenocrates, 
ib. ;  his  mode  of  pointing  out  a  suc- 
cessor, 212;  writers  against  and  for, 
408 ;  bonmot  on  his  precepts,  ii.  78. 

Armstrong,  Archibald,  jester  to 
Charles  I.  ii.  423,  note. 

Arnauld,  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
members  of  the  Port  Royal  Society, 
i.  154;  anecdotes  of,  156,  157;  was 
still  the  great  Arnauld  at  the  age  of 
eighty-two,  157. 

Ashmole,  Elias,  his  Theatrum  Chem- 
icum  Britannicum,  i.  377. 

Astr.ea,  D'Urfd's  romance  of  the,  ii. 
130;  sketch  of,  130-133. 

Astrologers,  faith  in,  by  celebrated 


charactei-s,  i.  369 ;  Lilly  consulted  by 
Charles  I.,  ib.;  Nostrodamus,  by 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  370;  several 
have  suffered  death  to  verify  their 
skill,  ib. ;  shifts  and  impostures  of,  ib. 

Astrology,  greatly  flourished  in  the 
time  of  the  Civil  Wars,  i.  371;  at- 
tacks on  and  defences  of,  371,  372. 

Atellan.e  Fabuloe,  Atellan  farces,  ii. 
304,  and  note. 

Atticus,  employed  to  collect  for  Cice- 
ro, iii.  146 ;  traded  in  books  and  gla- 
diators, 148. 

Aubrey,  John,  extract  from  his  corre- 
spondence, iv.  195;  his  search  after 
gold,  ib. ;  his  idea  of  universal  €  duca- 
tion,  197. 

Audley,  a  lawyer  and  usurer,  ii.  332 ; 
his  commencement  of  life,  and  means 
of  rising  in,  335 ;  anecdote  of  him  and 
a  draper,  ib. ;  his  maxims  of  political 
economy,  336 ;  his  reply  to  a  borrow- 
ing lord",  337 ;  his  manners  and  opin- 
ions, 342-344;  his  death,  345;  his 
general  character,  345,  346. 

Autographs,  indications  of  character, 
iv.  44;  of  English  sovereigns,  46,  47. 

B. 

Babington's  conspiracy,  some  ac- 
count of  its  progress,  and  of  the  noble 
youths  concerned  in  it,  ii.  347 ;  trial 
and  defences  of  the  conspirators,  349 ; 
their  execution,  351,  352. 

Bacchus,  ancient  descriptions  of,  and 
modern  translations  of  them,  iii.  24. 

Bacon,  Lord,  sketch  of  his  life  as  a 
philosophei*,  iv.  224-232 ;  more  val- 
ued abroad  than  at  home,  233. 

Baker,  Sir  Richard,  author  of  the 
Chronicle,  died  in  the  Fleet,  iii.  211 ; 
his  papers  burnt,  ib. 

Bales,  Peter,  a  celebrated  caligrapher, 

i.  366. 

Ballard,  the  Jesuit,  concerned  in 
Babington's  conspiracy,  ii.  347;  ex- 
pression of  his  on  his  trial,  349. 

Baptista  Porta,  founded  the  Acca- 
demie  of  the  Oziosi  and  Segreti,  iv. 
190;  considered  himself  a  prognos- 
ticator,  ib. ;  his  magical  devices,  190, 
191. 

Barbier,  Louis,  anecdote  relating  to, 

ii.  164. 

Barthius,  Gaspar,  a  voluminous  au- 
thor, iii.  305 ;  an  infant  prodigy,  306 ; 
published  a  long  list  of  unprinted 
works,  307 ;  its  fate,  308. 

Basnage,  his  Dictionary,  iv.  122. 

Bayle,  publishes  his  Ncuvelles  de  la 


INDEX. 


451 


Republique  des  Letlres,  i.  63 ;  his  Crit- 
ical Dictionary,  remarks  on  its 
character,  iii.  129-132;  Gibbon's 
remarks  on,  132;  publication  of,  133; 
his  originality,  how  obtained,  134; 
account  of  his  death,  ii.  60;  his  con- 
duct to  his  friend,  ib. ;  read  much 
by  his  fingers,  61;  amusements  of, 
ib. ;  anecdotes,  relating  to,  ib. ;  his 
errors,  iii.  135;  his  characteristics, 
136 ;  changes  his  religion  twice,  137 ; 
extract  from  his  diary,  138 ;  his  me- 
thods of  study,  139 ;  appointed  to  a 
professorship,  ib.;  deprived  of  it,  ib.; 
laments  his  want  of  books,  140;  an- 
ecdotes of  the  effects  of  his  works, 
141 ;  a  model  of  a  literary  character, 
145. 

Beards,  various  fashions  in,  i.  300. 

Beaussol,  M.  Peyraud  de,  his  pref- 
ace to  his  condemned  tragedy,  iii. 
38-42. 

Ben  Jonson,  assisted  Rawleigh  in  his 
history  of  the  world,  iv.  9,  and  note. 

Benevolences,  iv.  85,  86. 

Bentley,  notice  of  his  criticisms  on 
Milton,  ii.  35-38. 

Bettekton,  anecdote  of,  i.  336. 

Beza,  Theodore,  an  imitator  of  Calvin 
in  abuse,  i.  403 ;  effect  of  his  work 
against  toleration,  iv.  142. 

Bible,  the  prohibition  of,  ii.  175 ;  vari- 
ous vei'sions  of,  177-179  ;  a  family 
one,  179 ;  corrupt  state  of  the  Eng- 
lish, formerly,  iv.  349;  printing  of, 
an  article  of  open  trade,  350 ;  shame- 
ful practices  in  the  printing  of,  350- 
352,  and  note ;  privilege  of  printing 
granted  to  one  Bentlev,  352;  Field's 
Pearl  Bible  contained  6,000  faults, 
353;  division  of,  into  chapter  and 
verse,  355. 

Bibliomane,  iv.  249. 

Bibliomania,  i.  57. 

Bibliognoste,  iv.  249. 

BlBLIOGRAPHE,  iv.  249. 

Bibliography,  remarks  on  its  import- 
ance, iv.  249. 
Bibliophile,  iv.  249. 

BlBLIOTAPHE,  iv.  249. 

Biographical  parallels,  iv.  346;  a 
book  of,  proposed  by  Hurd,  ib. ;  be- 
tween Budeeus  and  Erasmus,  347; 
instances  of  several,  348,  349. 

Biography,  remarks  on,  iv.  302 ;  sen- 
timental, distinguished  from  chrono- 
logical, ib. ;  of  Dante,  by  Boccaccio 
and  Aretino,  334-340  ;  domestic, 
340-345 ;  customary  among  the  Ro- 
mans, 345;  comparative,  a  series  of, 
projected  bv  Elizabeth  Hamilton,  ib. 


Birch,  Dr.,  his  great  services  to  his- 
tory, iv.  301. 

Birkenhead,  Sir  John,  a  newspaper 
writer  and  pamphleteer  during  the 
great  rebellion,  i.  229. 

Black  Cloaks,  a  political  nickname 
for  a  party  in  Naples,  iii.  412. 

Blenhuim,  secret  history  of  the  build- 
ing of,  iii.  435-444 ;  drawn  from  MSS. 
435,  note. 

Bonaventure  de  Perriers,  speci- 
men of  his  stories,  i.  194. 

Botanic  Garden,  Darwin's  remarks 
on,  i.  439 

Bouts  Rimes,  i.  388. 

Bourdaloue,  i.  344. 

Bourgeois,  Pere,  one  of  the  Chinese 
missionaries,  account  of  his  attempt 
at  preaching  in  Chinese,  i.  356,  357. 

Book  of  Sports,  effect  of,  ii.  322. 

Books,  collections  of,  see  Libraries; 
collectors  of,  see  Collectors;  re- 
views of,  and  criticisms  on,  see  Lit- 
erary Journals  and  Sketches  of 
Criticism;  destruction  of,  see  title; 
lost,  i.  112-114;  prices  of,  in  early 
times,  133;  treatise  on  the  art  of 
reading  printed,  134;  curious  adver- 
tisements of,  227 ;  titles  of,  379 ;  va- 
rious opinions  as  to  the  size  of,  ii.  9; 
difficulties  encountered  in  publishing 
many  books  of  merit,  41 ;  works  of 
another  description  better  remuner- 
ated, 43;  leaves  of,  origin  of  their 
name,  180,  note;  table-books,  183; 
derivation  of  the  name  "  book,"  185; 
description  of  the  form  and  condition 
of  ancient,  ib.;  censors  and  licensers 
of,  399 ;  catalogue  of,  condemned  at 
the  Council  of  Trent,  400;  inquisi- 
tors of,  ib.  see  Index;  burning  of, 
anecdote  of  its  good  effect  in  promot- 
ing their  sale,  403;  mutilations 
caused  by  the  censors  in  Camden's 
works,  Lord  Herbert's  History  of 
Henry  VIII.,  and  the  Poems  of  Lord 
Brooke,  405 ;  anecdotes  of  purloinei's 
of,  iv.  219;  predilection  of  celebrat- 
ed men  to  particular,  244-247 ;  cal- 
culations as  to  their  present  number, 
248;  different  terms  for  amateurs 
of,  249 ;  which  have  been  designed 
but  not  completed,  425,  426. 

Booksellers,  two  ruined  by  one  au- 
thor, iii.  304. 

Borrowers,  destructive  to  collections 
of  books,  i.  60. 

Bridgewater,  late  Duke  of,  destroy- 
ed many  family  MSS.,  iii.  209. 

Buckingham,  Duke  of,  his  conduct  in 
Spain,  ii.  155-157;  equally  a  favour- 


452 


INDEX. 


ite  with  James  I.  and  Charles  I.,  157; 
Hume's  character  of,  ib. ;  anecdote 
of  him  and  the  Queen  of  France,  158 ; 
his  audacity  and  "  English  familiar- 
ity," ib. ;  anecdote  of  him  and  Prince 
Charles,  159;  his  rise,  164;  his  mag- 
nificent entertainment  of  Charles  I. 
and  the  French  ambassador,  iii.  65; 
his  character,  97-100,  and  notes; 
contrast  between  him  and  Richelieu, 
100;  history  of  his  expedition  to 
Spain  with  Prince  Charles,  101-104; 
prognostics  of  his  death,  105-108; 
portrait  of,  109,  note;  determined  to 
succour  Kochelle,  111;  his  death, 
112;  satires  on,  113;  possessed  the 
esteem  of  Charles  E,  114;  intrigued 
with  the  Puritans,  iv.  367;  his  inter- 
course with  Dr.  Preston,  a  Puritan, 
368;  discovers  Preston's  insincerity, 
and  abandons  the  Puritans,  371;  his 
impeachment,  378;  his  failure  at 
the  Isle  of  Rhe\  385 ;  offers  to  resign 
his  offices,  397 ;  hatred  of,  by  the  Par- 
liament, 398. 

Buffon,  Vicq.  d'Azyr's  description  of 
his  study,  iv.  312. 

Buildings  in  the  metropolis,  opposi- 
tion to,  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth 
to  those  of  Charles  IE,  iv.  275 ;  stat- 
ute against,  276;  proclamations 
against,  ib. 

Burying  grounds,  iv.  97. 

C, 

Cadiz,  expedition  to,  in  the  time  of 
Charles  E,  iii.  109;  satirical  lines  on, 
110. 

Calamy,  his  History  of  the  Ejected 

Ministers,  iv.  133. 
Calumny,  political  advantages  of, 

iii.  409. 

Calvin,  less  tolerable  than  Luther  in 

controversy,  i.  403. 
Camus,  his  M^decine  de  l'Esprit,  iii. 

231. 

Caracci,  the  family  of  the,  iii.  149; 
Lodovico,  character  of,  150-152 ;  the 
school  of  the,  151,  note;  Agostino 
and  Annibale,  152;  their  opposite 
characters,  ib.;  the  three  opened  a 
school  in  their  own  house,  154; 
Agostino's  eminence  there,  ib. ;  his 
sonnet  comprising  the  laws  of  paint- 
ing, ib.;  Domenichino,  Albano, 
Guido,  Guercino,  their  pupils,  155, 
156 :  disputes  between  Annibale  and 
Agostino,  156 ;  their  separation,  157. 

Cardinal  Richelieu,  anecdotes  of, 
and  considerations  on  his  character, 
i.  205-209. 


Carleton,  Sir  Dudley,  vice-chamber- 
lain of  Charles  E,  his  speech  to  the 
Commons  on  the  imprisonment  of 
two  of  their  members  for  their  im- 
peachment of  Buckingham,  iv.  381. 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  her  belief  in 
astrology,  iv.  256;  employs  Montluc 
to  intrigue  to  secure  the'election  of 
the  Duke  of  Anjou  to  the  crown  of 
Poland,  258. 

Catharinot,  a  voluminous  writer,  iii. 
318;  his  singular  mode  of  publishing 
his  unsalable  works,  319. 

Cause  and  Pretext,  distinction  be- 
tween, to  be  observed  by  historians, 
iv.  19 ;  anecdotical  illustrations,  20- 
22. 

Cayet,  Dr.,  his  "  Chronologie  Nove- 
naire,"  ii.  160. 

Censors  of  books,  designed  to  counter- 
act the  press,  ii.  399 ;  originated  with 
the  Inquisition,  ib.;  appointed  with 
the  title  of  Inquisitors  of  Books,  400; 
disagreement  among  these  inquisi- 
tors, 401 ;  in  Spain,  402 ;  their  treat- 
ment of  commentators  on  the  Lusiad, 
ib. ;  instances  of  the  injury  done  to 
English  literature  by  the  appoint- 
ment of,  404;  never  recognized  by 
English  law,  405;  regularly  estab- 
lished under  Charles  E,  407  ;  office  of, 
maintained  by  the  Puritans,  408; 
treatment  of  Milton  by,  ib. ;  the  office 
lay  dormant  under  Crormvell,  409; 
revived  and  continued  under  Charles 
II.  and  James  IE,  ib. ;  anecdotes  rel- 
ative to,  411-414. 

Centos,  i.  392. 

Ceremonies,  different,  among  various 

nations,  ii.  165-169. 
Cervantes,  remark  of,  ii.  63 ;  taken 

prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Lepanto,  ib. 
Chamillart,  minister  of  France,  his 

rise,  ii.  164. 
Charades,  i.  389. 

Charles  Martel,  his  combat  with, 
and  defeat  of,  the  Mahometans,  iii. 
185. 

Charles  the  First,  account  of  his  ex- 
pedition into  Spain,  ii.  153-157 ;  an  • 
ecdote  of  him  and  Buckingham,  156; 
history  of  his  diamond  seal,  iii.  63; 
his  love  of  the  fine  arts,  64 ;  the  mag- 
nificence and  taste  of  his  court  enter- 
tainments, 65;  anecdote  of,  67;  cata- 
logue of  his  effects,  69 :  an  artist  and 
a  poet,  72,  73,  and  note;  influence  of 
his  wife  on,  doubted,  7 4 ;  his  dismissal 
of  his  wife's  French  establishment, 
85;  reply  to  the  French  ambassa- 
dor's remonstrances,  86;  his  conduct 


INDEX. 


453 


on  the  death  of  Buckingham,  114; 
secret  history  of  him  and  his  first 
Parliaments,  iv.  372 ;  the  latter  a  sul- 
len bride,  373  ;  his  address  to  his  first 
Parliament,  and  their  ungracious 
conduct,  374,  375 ;  they  abandoned 
the  king,  375 ;  raises  money  on  Privy 
Seals,  ib. ;  on  the  failure  of  the  expe- 
dition to  Cadiz  he  called  his  second 
Parliament,  376;  communications 
between  him  and  his  Parliament,  377, 
378;  his  address  to  them,  noticing 
the  impeachment  of  Buckingham, 
ib. ;  his  conduct  on  that  occasion  the 
beginning  of  his  troubles,  379;  on  the 
Commons1  further  remonstrance 
against  Buckingham,  he  dissolves  his 
second  Parliament,  383;  his  distress 
for  money,  384;  his  fresh  distresses 
on  the  failure  of  the  expedition  to  the 
Isle  of  Rhe,  and  his  expedients  to 
raise  money,  385,  386;  their  ill  suc- 
cess, 387,  389  ;  reflections  on  his 
situation,  390;  rejects  the  proffered 
advice  of  the  President  of  the  Rosy- 
Cross,  392 ;  anonymous  letter  sent  to 
the  Commons,  and  by  them  forward- 
ed to  the  king  without  perusing,  393 ; 
secret  measures  used  by  the  opposi- 
tion, 394;  speech  of  the' king  to  Par- 
liament, 395 ;  his  emotion  on  being 
informed  that  the  Parliament  had 
granted  subsidies,  396;  debates  on 
the  king's  message,  401;  Coke's 
speech  thereon,  402 ;  the  kin»  grants 
his  assent  to  the  Petition  of  Right, 
404,  405;  popular  rejoicings,  405; 
presentation  of  the  Remonstrance, 
ib.;  the  king's  conduct  after  the  as- 
sassination of  Buckingham,  406; 
vow  of  the  Parliament  to  maintain 
the  Articles  of  Religion  of  the  13th 
Eliz.,  408;  tumult  in  the  House,  and 
dissolution  of  the  Parliament,  410. 

Charles  the  Fifth,  his  edicts  against 
the  Reformed,  iv.  136;  his  conduct 
influenced  by  political,  not  religious 
motives,  137. 

Charles  the  Ninth,  account  of  the 
death  of,  ii.  160, 161;  his  apology  for 
the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
iv.  151,  156 ;  his  character,  157. 

Cherries,  into  Great  Britain,  intro- 
duction of,  ii.  330 ;  loss  and  reintro- 
duction  of,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  ib. 

Chess,   clergymen  prohibited  from 

playing,  ii.  190. 
Chinese  language,  i.  356;  difficulties 

of,  experienced  by  P.  Bourgeois,  ib. 
Chocolate,  brought  from  Mexico  by 


the  Spaniards,  iii.  62 ;  treatise  against 
the  use  of,  ib. 

Chocolate-houses,  iii.  62. 

Christodins,  iii.  411. 

Chronograms,  i.  388. 

Churchill  abhorred  the  correction 
of  his  MSS.  ii.  252. 

Cicero  a  punster,  i.  126;  a  manufac- 
turer of  prefaces,  128;  a  collector, 
iii.  145;  his  projected  library,  ib.; 
employs  Atticus  to  procure  books 
and  statues,  146;  discovered  the 
tomb  of  Archimedes,  iv.  327. 

Cities,  Free,  shook  off  the  yoke  of 
feudal  tyranny,  i.  258. 

Clairon,  Mademoiselle,  anecdote  of, 
i.  337. 

Clarendon  House,  history  of  its  erec- 
tion, iv.  74,  75 ;  popularly  called  Dun- 
kirk House,  or  Tangier  Hall,  75; 
satire  on  the  building  of,  76 ;  existing 
remains  of,  ib.  note. 

Classical  learning,  iii.  129. 

Clovis,  his  reasons  for  adopting  Chris- 
tianity, iii.  188, 189,  and  note. 

Coaches,  introduction  of,  into  Eng- 
land, ii.  195 ;  use  of,  in  France,  ib. 

Cock-fighting  in  Ceylon,  i.  264. 

Coffee,  introduction  of,  into  Europe, 
iii.  57 ;  made  fashionable  at  Paris  by 
the  Turkish  ambassador,  ib. ;  invec- 
tives and  poetical  satires  against,  58, 
59:  advantages  of  its  use,  61. 

Coffee-houses,  the  first  opened  at 
Paris,  iii.  57,  58;  improvements  in, 
58;  the  first  in  England,  ib.;  shut 
up  by  proclamation,  61. 

Coke,  or  Cook,  Sir  Edward,  his  most 
pleasing  book,  his  Manual,  or  Vade 
Mecum,  iii.  287;  his  MSS.  seized  on 
his  death,  ib.;  yet  to  be  recovered, 
ib.  note ;  his  character,  288 ;  his  mat- 
rimonial alliances,  288 ;  his  disgrace, 
289;  disputes  between  him  and  his 
wife,  Lady  Hatton,  concerning  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter,  292  ;  curi- 
ous letter  of  advice  to  Lady  Hatton, 
for  her  defence  before  the  Council, 
293-298;  his  daughter  married  to 
Lord  Villiers,  and  Coke  reinstated, 
299;  his  daughter's  bad  conduct,  ib. ; 
his  death,  300 ;  his  vituperative  style, 
ib. ;  his  conduct  to  Rawleigh,  300, 
301:  his  abjectness  in  disgrace,  302; 
pricked  as  sheriff,  to  exclude  him 
from  Parliament,  iv.  371;  eludes  the 
appointment  by  excepting  to  the 
oath,  372. 

Coke,  Mr.  Clement,  a  violent  opposi- 
tion leader  in  the  second  Parliament 
of  Charles  I.  iv.  377. 


454 


INDEX. 


Coleridge,  method  pui'sued  by  him 
in  his  remarkable  political  predic- 
tions, iv.  166. 

Collections  of  books,  see  Libra- 
ries; of  engravings,  see  Engrav- 
ings. 

Collector  of  books,  i.  57;  defence 
of  himself,  as  one  of  the  body,  by 
Ancillon,  58;  Aristotle  first  saluted 
as  a,  107, 108. 

Collectors,  their  propensity  to  plun- 
der, iv.  219-223. 

Collins,  Anthonv,  a  great  lover  of 
books,  iii.  337,338;  a  free-thinker, 
ib  . ;  the  friend  of  Locke,  339;  fate 
of  his  MSS.  339-343. 

Comedies,  extemporal,  ii.  302 ;  opinion 
of  northern  critics  on,  303;  the 
amusement  of  Italy,  ib. ;  practised  by 
the  Romans,  304;  Salvator  Rosa's 
prologue  to  one,  305;  opinions  and 
descriptions  of,  by  Riccoboni  and 
Gherardi,  307;  anecdote  of  the  ex- 
cellence of,  310;  when  first  intro- 
duced in  England,  311. 

Comfits  universally  used  under  Henry 
III.  of  France,  i.  302. 

Comines,  notice  of,  i.  349. 

Composition,  various  modes  of  liter- 
ary, ii.  251 ;  correction  in,  necessary, 
252 ;  but  by  some  authors  impossi- 
ble, ib. ;  illustrative  anecdotes,  253 ; 
use  of  models  in,  255 ;  various  modes 
of,  used  by  celebrated  authors,  255- 
260;  passion  for,  exhibited  by  some 
authors,  iii.  304,  305. 

Conde,  great  Prince  of,  expert  in 
physiognomy,  i.  219. 

Confreres  de  la  Passion,  ii.  15. 

Confusion  of  words  by  writers,  iii. 
391;  by  the  Nominalists  and  Real- 
ists, 392 ;  in  modern  philosophy,  393 ; 
between  the  Antinomians  and  their 
opposers,  and  the  Jansenists  and 
Jesuits,  394,  395;  between  Abelard 
and  St.  Bernard,  396 ;  other  instances, 
397-399 ;  in  jurisprudence  and  poli- 
tics, 399;  historical  instances,  399, 
400 ;  arising  from  a  change  of  mean- 
ing in  the  course  of  time,  402 ;  serious 
consequences  of,  402-404;  among 
political  economists,  407;  illustra- 
tive anecdote  of  Caramuel,  a  Span- 
ish bishop,  408. 

Constantine,  motives  of  his  acknow- 
ledgment of  Christianity,  iii.  189. 

Controversial  writings,  acrimony 
infused  into  by  scholars,  i.  220. 

Controversy,  literary,  that  of  the 
Nominalists  and  Reaiists,  i.  406 ;  be- 
tween Benedetto  Aletino  and  Con- 


stantino Grimaldi,  408,  409;  abuse 
lavished  on  each  other  by  learned 
men  in,  407-415;  challenges  sent  on 
occasion  of,  413. 

Cookery  and  cooks  of  the  ancients, 
ii.  433;  Epic  composed  in  praise  of, 
434;  illustrative  translations  from 
Athenaeus,  435,  436;  the  dexterity 
of  the  cooks,  441 ;  writers  on,  443 ; 
anecdotes,  443,  444. 

Corneille,  Peter,  died  in  poverty,  i. 
84;  deficient  in  conversation,  165; 
sketch  of  his  life,  ii.  102-107. 

Corneille,  Thomas,  impromptu  writ- 
ten under  his  portrait,  ii.  107. 

Cornelius  Agrippa,  accused  of 
magic,  i.  79;  his  dog  supposed  to  be 
a  demon,  ib. ;  his  belief  in  demons, 
iv.  181. 

Cornhert,  Theodore,  a  great  advo- 
cate for  toleration,  iv.  149,  and  note. 
Corsned,  i.  234. 

Cosmetics,  use  of,  by  the  ladies  of 
the  Elizabethan  age,  i.  310. 

Cotton,  Sir  Robert,  his  character  of 
Charles  I.,  iv.  382,  383. 

Country  gentlemen,  their  former  hab- 
its commended,  ii.  391;  Lord  Clar- 
endon's mention  of  his  grandfather's 
conduct  as  one  of  the  body,  ib. ; 
their  conduct  created  a  national 
character,  ib. 

Country  residence,  opinion  of  Justice 
Best  upon,  iv.  276 ;  James  1.  recom- 
mendation of,  ib. ;  proclamations  to 
compel  a,  277;  and  proceedings  in 
the  Star  Chamber  against  the  dis- 
obedient, 278,  279;  Ode  upon,  by  Sir 
Richard  Fanshaw,  282-284. 

Cranmer,  Jansenist  character  of,  ii.  39. 

Creation  of  the  World,  precise  date 
of,  i.  395. 

Crebillon,  his  creditors  attached  the 
proceeds  of  his  tragedy  of  Catiline, 

ii.  77;  decree  of  Louis  XV.  there- 
upon, ib. 

Critics  may  possess  the  art  of  judging 
without  the  power  of  execution,  ii. 
77;  Abbe  d'Aubignac  and  Chape- 
lain  quoted  as  instances,  ib. 

Criticism,  Periodical,  see  Literary 
Journals,  i.  60-66;  sketches  of 
amongst  the  ancients,  74-77;  effect 
of,  upon  authors,  ii.  80. 

Cromwell,  his  great  political  error, 

iii.  191;  prediction  of  his  future  em- 
inence, iv.  167,  168;  reasons  for  his 
delay  in  naming  a  successor,  233, 234. 

CYRE,'the  Abbe\  an  envoy  of  the  Em- 
peror's in  Poland,  iv.  260;  seized  and 
imprisoned,  271. 


INDEX. 


D. 

D'Aguesseau,  the  Chancellor,  his  ad- 
vice to  his  son  on  the  study  of  his- 
tory, iv.  63. 

Dance  of  Death,  iv.  100-104. 

Dante,  origin  of  his  Inferno  disputes 
on,  iii.  173;  the  entire  work  Gothic, 
174;  Vision  of  Alberico  supposed  to 
be  borrowed,  175 ;  and  probably  read 
by  Dante,  ib. ;  his  originality  vindi- 
cated, 180, 181 ;  the  true  origin  of  the 
Inferno,  181,  and  note. 

Death,  anecdotes  relating  to  the  death 
of  many  distinguished,  persons,  ii. 
89-94;  book  containing  the  accounts 
of  the  deaths  of  remarkable  persons, 
compiled  by  Montaigne,  iv.  87;  re- 
flections on  death,  88;  anecdotes  of 
the  death  of  some  celebrated  persons, 
88,  89;  effect  of  the  continual  con- 
sideration of,  91 ;  Lady  Gethiu's  ideas 
on,  ib. ;  conversations  of  Johnson  and 
Boswell  on,  92;  singular  preparations 
for,  by  Moncriff,  93,  94;  opinions  of 
the  ancients  on,  95,  96;  personifica- 
tions of,  among  the  ancients,  96,  and 
note;  Gothic  representations  of,  97. 

Dedications,  curious  anecdotes  con- 
cerning, i.  434-439 ;  price  for  the  ded- 
ication of  a  play,  436;  one  to  himself 
composed  by  a  patron,  436 ;  practice 
of  Elkanah  Settle  with  regard  to, 
437 ;  of  the  Polyglot  Bible  to  Crom- 
well, ib. ;  altered  at  the  Restoration, 
ib.;  to  Cardinal  Richelieu,  438;  Dry- 
den's,  ib. ;  ingenious  one  by  Sir  Si- 
mon Degge,  439. 

De  Foe,  his  honour  questioned  as  to 
the  publication  of  Robinson  Crusoe, 
ii.  465;  probably  struck  by  Steele's 
observations  on  Selkirk's  narration, 
467;  wrote  Robinson  Crusoe  in  com- 
parative solitude,  ib. ;  vindication  of 
his  character,  467,  468. 

De  la  Chambre,  secret  correspond- 
ence of,  with  Louis  XIV.  on  physiog- 
nomy, i.  216. 

Delinquents,  a  convenient  revolu- 
tionary phrase,  iii.  416. 

Descartes,  persecuted  for  his  opin- 
ions, i.  80;  silent  in  mixed  company, 
165;  his  description  of  his  life  in 
Amsterdam,  175,  176. 

Descriptions,  local,  when  prolonged, 
tedious,  iii.  319;  Boileau's  criticisms 
on,  320;  inefficiency  of,  instanced  by 
a  passage  from  Pliny,  ib. ;  example 
of  elegant,  in  a  sonnet  by  Francesca 
de  Caste! lo,  322. 

Descriptive  Poems,  general  remarks 
on,  i.  440;  race  of,  confined  to  one 


object,  ib. ;  titles  of,  and  notices  on 
several  of  these,  440-442. 
Des  Maizeaux,  a  French  refugee,  iii. 
333;  his  Life  of  Bavle,  334;  notices 
of  his  literary  life,  334,  337  ;  Anthonv 
Collins  bequeathes  his  MSS.  to,  889; 
relinquishes  them  to  Collins's  widow, 
ib;  correspondence  concerning,  340 
-343. 

Desmarets,  his  comedy  of  the  "Vi- 
sionnaires,"  ii.  208. 

De  Serkes,  introduced  the  cultivation 
of  the  mulberry  tree  and  silkworm 
into  France,  ii.  326;  opposition  to 
his  schemes,  ib. ;  supported  bv  Hen- 
ry IV.  327;  medal  struck  in  honour 
of  his  memory,  327. 

Destruction  of  books  and  MSS.  by 
the  monks,  i.  70,  104;  account  of,  at 
Constantinople  by  the  Christians, 
suppressed,  101 ;  burning  of  Talmuds, 
ib. ;  of  Irish  and  Mexican,  102 ;  anec- 
dotes regarding,  102-104;  of  Korans, 
103;  of  the  classics,  104;  of  Bohe-* 
mian,  105;  in  England  under  Henry 
VIII.  ib.;  at  Stationers'  Hall  in  1599, 
107 ;  of  many  of  Lady  Mary  Wortley 
Montagu's  letters,  108;  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  MSS.  109;  anecdotes  con- 
cerning the,  ib.;  by  fire  and  ship- 
wreck, 110-112. 

D'Ewes,  Sir  Simon,  a  sober  anti 
quary,  but  a  visionary,  iv.  356;  ex 
tracts  from  his  Diary,  357,  358. 

Diary,  of  a  master  of  the  ceremonies, 
ii.  374;  Shaftesbury's  definition  of 
a,  388;  Colonel  Harwood's,  ib.;  kept 
by  Titus,  ib.;  Alfred's,  389;  Prince 
Henry's,  ib. ;  Edward  VI.'s,  ib. ;  kept 
by  James  II.  390;  usually  kept 
by  heads  of  families,  391;  kept  by 
Swift  and  Horace  Walpole,  ib.'; 
recommended  by  Sir  Thomas  Bod- 
ley  to  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  ib.; 
Coke's,  392;  Camden's,  ib.:  of  Sir 
Simon  d'Ewes,  393;  Baxter's,  ib.; 
the  thoughtful  disposition  giving  rise 
to  the  keeping  of  a  diary,  partaken 
even  by  women,  394;  Whitelocke's, 
395 ;  Henry  Earl  of  Clarendon's,  397 ;. 
Lord  Clarendon's,  ib.;  practice  of 
keeping  one  recommended,  398. 

Diaries,  Religious,  iv.  358. 

Dictionary  of  Trevoux,  account  of 
its  origin  and  progress,  iv.  121 ;  of 
Basnage,  122;  of  Dr.  Johnson,  125. 

DniGES,  Sir  Dudley,  a  violent  oppo- 
sition leader  in  Charles  I.'s  second 
Parliament,  iv.  377;  opened  the  im- 
peachment of  Buckingham,  378  f 
committed  to  the  Tower,  380. 


45  G 


INDEX. 


Dilapidation  of  MSS.— See  Manu- 
scripts. 

Dinner  hour,  variations  of,  in  differ- 
ent times,  ii.  193. 

Dinner  parties,  Roman  limitation  of 
the  number  of  guests  at,  ii.  434. 

Discoveries  in  literature  and  science, 
aptitude  in,  obtained  by  studious 
men,  iv.  327;  illustrative  anecdotes, 
327-332. 

Divinity,  scholastic,  i.  118,  119;  curi- 
ous accounts  and  specimens  of, 
120,  121. 

Dodu's  Church  History  of  England, 
iv.  132. 

Dragons,  origin  of  the  old  stories  of, 

ii.  188. 

Drama,  anecdotes  of  the  early,  ii.  198- 
201;  Mexican,  202;  account  of  a 
curious  drama,  entitled  Technota- 
mia,  or  the  Marriage  of  the  Arts, 
203-206 ;  account  of  one  written  by 
a  madman,  208. 
•Dramatic  works  made  the  vehicle  of 
political  feeling,  iii.  7 ;  by  the  Cath- 
olics at  the  Reformation,  ib. ;  such 
conduct  caused  a  proclamation  by 
Edward  VI.  against  English  inter- 
ludes, &c.  8;  those  on  the  side  of 
the  Reformation  allowed,  and  spec- 
imens of  one,  9-11;  proceedings 
against  in  the  Star  Chamber,  11. 
Dramatic  Annals. — See  Dramatic 
Works.  Suppression  of  the  drama 
during  the  civil  wars  of  Charles  I. 

iii.  12;  opposite  conduct  of  actors 
at  that  time,  and  at  the  period  of 
the  French  revolution,  ib. ;  writers 
against  the  stage,  13,  14 ;  custom  of 
boys  personating  females,  14;  intro- 
duction of  actresses,  15;  Histriomas- 
tix,  16;  all  theatres  suppressed  in 
1642,  ib. ;  ordinance  against  theatres, 
17;  plays  enacted  secretly  during 
their  suppression,  18;  Cox's  "drol- 
leries," IS,  19;  petitions  against  the 
drama,  20;  the  player's  petition  in 
favour  of,  21,  22;  '  secretly  acted 
at  Holland  House,  23;  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  drama  caused  the  publi- 
cation of  many  MS.  plays,  ib. 

Drinking,  hard,  a  borrowed  custom 
among  the  English,  iii.  25;  learnt  by 
them  in  the  Netherlands,  ib. ;  stat- 
utes against,  ib.  note;  terms  of.  26, 
note,  27-30;  anecdotes  of,  31-33'. 

Drunkards,  their  different  character- 
istics, iii.  32;  "A  Delicate  Diet  for," 
ib.  note;  toasts  of,  33,  and  note. 

Du  Clos,  origin  of  his  fairy  tale  of 
Acajou  and  Zirphile,  and  account 


of  his  satirical  preface  to  it,  iii. 
43-46. 

Dutch  literature,  remarks  and  stric- 
tures on,  ii.  73-75. 

E. 

Echo  verses,  specimen  of,  ii.  422. 

Edward  the  Fourth,  to  what  he  owed 
his  crown,  i.  349. 

Elizabeth,  queen,  i.  352;  her  amours, 
352,  353;  wished  to  be  thought  beau- 
tiful by  all  the  world,  354;  her  habits 
studious  but  not  of  the  gentlest  kind, 
355;  her  writing,  ib. ;  her  education 
severely  classical,  356 ;  various  anec- 
dotes concerning,  352-356;  her  con- 
duct regarding  the  succession,  ii. 
357 ;  her  treatment  of  James  1.  ib. 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  a  violent  opposition 
leader  in  Charles  I.'s  second  Parlia- 
ment, iv.  377 ;  his  speech  on  the  im- 
peachment of  Buckingham,  378,  379; 
committed  to  the  Tower,  380 ;  violent 
against  Buckingham  in  Parliament, 
398;  his  collection  of  satires  against 
him,  ib. ;  a  leader  in  the  last  Parlia- 
ment of  Charles  I.  398-411. 

Eloisa,  solicited  and  obtained  Abe- 
lard's  absolution,  i.  213;  buried  with 
Abelard,  214;  a  fine  lady,  215; 
Pope's  reprehensible  lines  found  in 
original  letters  of,  ib. 

Enchanters,  origin  of  the  old  stories 
of,  ii.  188. 

English  Poetry,  scai*cely  known  in 
France  in  1610,  iv.  125;  ignorance 
of,  displayed  by  Quadrio  innis  His- 
tory of  Poetry  published  in  1750, 127. 

Engravings,  first  collection  of,  under 
Louis  XIV.,  by  Colbert,  i.  55;  collec- 
tion of  engraved  portraits  originated 
the  work  of  Granger,  98. 

Epitaph  on  Cardinal  Richelieu,  by  his 
protege^  Benserade,  i.  142;  by  cele- 
brated persons  on  themselves,  ii.  90 ; 
on  Philip  I.  153 ;  on  Butler,  the  au- 
thor of  Hudibras,  iii.  259.^__^ 

Errata,  remarkable  ane^uotes  con- 
cerning, i.  135-139. 

Etiquette,  Court,  reflections  on  its 
rise  and  progress,  ii.  374;  forms  of, 
observed  between  the  English  am- 
bassadors and  Cardinal  Richelieu, 
375 ;  creation  of  a  master  of  the  cer- 
emonies, 376;  absurd  punctilios  of, 
illustrated  from  the  Diary  of  Sir  John 
Finett,  376-387. 

Evelyn,  his  mode  of  composition,  ii. 
256;  praise  due  to  him  for  his  Sylva, 
325. 


INDEX. 


457 


Excommunication,  by  the  Popes, 
dreadful  consequences  of,  ii. 249-251. 

F. 

Fairfax:,  Sir  Thomas,  anecdotes  of 
him  and  his  family,  iii.  221. 

Fame,  contemned,  i.  122. 

Familiar  spirits,  intercourse  with, 
believed,  i.  78-80. 

Fan shaw,  Sir  Richard,  his  Ode  on  the 
king's  commanding  the  gentry  to  re- 
side on  their  estates,  iv.  282-284. 

Farces,  ancient,  reprehensible,  ii.  21; 
their  pleasantry  and  humour  not  con- 
temptible, 22;  customary  among  the 
Romans  after  a  serious  piece,  ii.  304. 

Fashions. — See  Literary  Fashions. 
Anecdotes  of  their  origin,  changes, 
and  extravagances,  i.  297-314;  in- 
troduction of  French,  305 ;  chronicled 
by  Stowe,  307 ;  French,  prevailed  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  310;  notice 
of  modern,  312 ;  lines  condemning  the 
acts  of,  313 ;  expensive  in  the  reigns 
of  Henrv  VII.  and  VIII.  ii.  194. 

Feast  of  "Fools,  ii.  189. 

Feast  of  Asses,  ii.  189. 

Felton,  John,  the  assassin  of  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  his  motives  for  the 
act,  iii.  115 ;  his  passage  to  London 
in  triumph,  116;  anagram  on  his 
name,  117 ;  his  remorse,  ib. ;  his  char- 
acter, 118;  his  family,  ib.  and  note; 
propositions  found  in  his  trunk,  119; 
answer  to  a  threat  of  torture,  120  ; 
poem  addressed  to,  122. 

Female  beauty  and  ornaments,  opin- 
ions and  practices  of  various  nations 
concerning;  i.  290-292. 

Fenelon,  Jansenist  character  of,  ii.  39. 

Feudal  customs  and  rights,  the  bar- 
barous, the  first  attempts  at  organiz- 
ing society,  i.  258;  servitude  of  the 
land,  259;  maiden  rights,  ib.;  ward- 
ship, 260;  German  lords  privileged 
to  rob  on  the  highway,  ib. ;  anecdote 
of  Geoffrey,  lord  of  Coventry,  261 ; 
anecdotes  of  the  abuse  of  feudal 
rights  and  power,  261,  262. 

Filbert,  origin  of  the  name,  ii.  332, 
and  note. 

Filicaja,  a  sonnet  of,  iv.  62;  trans- 
lated, ib. 

Finett,  Sir  John,  master  of  the  cere- 
monies to  Charles  I.  See  Etiquette. 

Fire,  in  primaeval  ages,  a  signal  of  re- 
spect, ii.  171;  worshipped  as  a  di- 
vinity,^; a  symbol  of  majesty,ib.; 
ancient  observances  regarding,  ib. 

Fire-works,  not  known  to  antiquity, 


ii.  173;  their  epoch,  ib.;  originated 
with  the  Florentines  and  Siennese, 
ib.;  their  use  passes  to  Rome,  174; 
exhibition  of  at  Paris,  ib. 

Flap-dragons,  iii.  31. 

Flea,  collection  of  poems  on,  i.  397. 

Floral  gifts,  withheld  by  the  Capi- 
touls  of  Toulouse  from  Maynard  a 
French  poet,  ii.  114. 

Flogging,  a  discussion  on,  occasioned 
Roger  Ascham  to  write  his  School- 
master, i.  145,  146. 

Flowers  and  Fruits,  praise  of  the  in- 
troducers of  exotic,  ii.  324  ;  Peiresc 
and  Evelyn,  325-327;  Hartlibb,  327; 
enthusiasm  evinced  by  the  trans- 
planters of,  328 ;  notice' of  many  in- 
troduced by  particular  persons,  329; 
origin  of,  distinguished  by  their 
names,  330;  worthy  pride  of  intro- 

^  ducers  of,  331. 

Forgeries  and  fictions,  political  and 
religious,  iv.  23;  historical  instances, 
24-28. 

Foscolo,  Ugo,  his  opinion  on  the  titles 
of  Italian  Academies,  iii.  254. 

Fourmont,  the  Oriental  scholar,  an- 
ecdote of,  iv.  312. 

Fox's  Acts  and  Monuments,  iv.  132. 

Friendships  of  literary  men,  inter- 
esting anecdotes  of,  ii.  216-220. 

Franklin,  Dr.  anecdote  of,  iv.  184. 

French  Revolution  a  commentary  on 
the  English,  iv.  373. 

Frondeurs,  iii.  412;  organized  by 
Cardinal  de  Retz,  iv.  22. 

Funeral  honours,  paid  to  their  kings 
by  the  Goths  and  Huns,  i.  273. 

G. 

Galileo,  condemned  to  disavow  his 
own  opinions,  i.  78,  79;  his  annota- 
tions on  Tasso,  iii.  200,  201. 

Gamesters,  memoirs  of  celebrated, 
i.  266. 

Gaming,  a  universal  passion,  i.  262; 

treatises  on,  ib. ;  among  the  nations 

of  the  East,  263,  264;  the  ancients, 

265 ;  picture  of  a  gambling  house  in 

1731,  265,  266. 
Gas,  origin  of  the  word,  iv.  185. 
Gemaka.— See  Talmud. 
Genius,  inequalities  of,  i.  146:  men 

of,  deficient  in   conversation,  164; 

modern  persecution  of,  274. 
Gerbier,  Sir  Balthazar,  a  confidential 

agent  of  the  duke  of  Buckingham, 

iii.  100;  notices  of  his  Memoirs,  101- 
104;  his  account  of  the  preparations 
for  the  siege  of  Rochelle,  110-112. 


458 


INDEX. 


Gethin,  Lady  Grace,  her  statue  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  ii.  461;  her 
papers  collected  and  published, 
under  the  title  of  Reliquiae  Gethin- 
ianae,  ib. ;  character  of  the  book,  402 ; 
Congreve's  laudatory  lines  on,  ib.; 
its  authenticity  doubted,  463;  her 
considerations  on  the  choice  of  a 
husband,  464. 

Ghosts,  theory  of,  iv.  186,  187. 

Giannone,  his  history  of  Naples,  iv. 
69,  threatened  by  the  Inquisition, 
70;  died  in  the  citadel  of  Turin, 
ib. 

Gibbon,  his  mode  of  study  useful  to 
students,  ii.  257. 

Gill,  Alexander,  committed  to  the 
Star  Chamber,  iii.  116. 

Gloves,  supposed  to  be  mentioned  in 
the  108th  Psalm,  i.  319;  account  of 
by  Xenophon,  ib. ;  mentioned  by 
several  ancient  writers,  ib. ;  use  of, 
universal  in  the  9th  century,  320; 
regulations  concerning,  ib. ;  em- 
ployed on  great  and  solemn  occa- 
sions, such  as  investitures,  ib. ; 
Abbots  forbidden  to  use,  ib. ;  bless- 
ing of,  321 ;  deprivation  of,  a  mark 
of  degradation,  321;  challenging  by, 
ib.;  use  of,  in  carrying  the  hawk, 
322;  formerly  forbidden  to  judges, 
ib. ;  singular  anecdote  concerning, 
ib. ;  ancient,  in  the  Denny  family,323. 

Glove-money,  i.  322. 

Goff,  Thomas,  a  tragic  poet,  ii.  201 ; 
specimens  of  his  works,  ib. 

Gondoliers  of  Venice,  description  of 
their  chanting  the  verses  of  Tasso 
and  Ariosto,  ii.  56-59. 

Gray,  loss  of  his  MSS.,  iii.  210. 

Grotius,  account  of  his  life  and 
studies,  i.  195-197. 

Grub-street  Journal,  extract  from, 

iii.  257;  its  authors,  ib.  note. 
Guelphs  and  Ghibelliues,  iii.  419. 
Gueux,  iii.  410. 

Guibert,  foretold  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, iv.  170. 
Guicciardini,  his  history  posthumous, 

iv.  65;  first  editions  of  his  works 
castrated,  ib.;  continuation  of  his 
history  by  Adriani,  ib. 

Guilt,  trials  and  modes  of  proof  of,  in 
superstitious  ages,  i.  232-238. 

H. 

Hair,  early  taste  in  the  colour  of,  ii. 
191. 

Halifax,  Marquis  of,  his  MS.  memoirs 
suppressed,  iii.  204. 


Hall,  Bishop,  his  belief  in  witches,  iv. 

194,  and  note. 
Halley,  anecdote  of  his  perseverance 

and  sagacity,  iv.  330. 
Hamilton,  Elizabeth,  her  projected 

series  of  comparative  biography,  iv. 

345,  346. 

Hans  Carvel,  origin  of  Prior's  story 
of,  i.  173. 

Harui,  a  French  tragic  author,  ii.  199. 

Harlequin,  his  Italian  origin,  ii.  288, 
289;  turned  into  a  magician  by  the 
English,  ib.;  the  character  essen- 
tially Italian,  ib.;  treatises  written 
on  it,  ib. ;  a  Roman  mime,  292  and 
note;  his  classical  origin,  293,  note; 
his  degeneration,  296;  his  renovation 
under  the  hand  of  Goldoni,  ib. ;  im- 
proved into  a  wit  in  France,  ib. 

Hartlibb,  Samuel,  a  collector  and 
publisher  of  manuscripts  on  horti- 
culture and  agriculture,  ii.  327. 

Harvey,  his  discovery  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood,  iv.  331. 

Hazlkrigg,  Sir  Arthur,  "  an  absurd 
bold  man,"  a  violent  leader  of  the 
Rump  Parliament,  iv.  418. 

Heart  of  a  lover,  story  of,  i.  316-318. 

Heavy  hours  of  literary  men,  ii.  61. 

Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Heaven,  topo- 
graphical descriptions  of,  i.  281-283 ; 
treatises  on,  283,  284. 

Hemon  de  la  Fosse,  a  modern  Poly- 
theist,  executed  in  1503,  i.  296. 

Henrietta,  queen  of  Charles  I.  her 
character,  iii.  75;  anecdote  illustra- 
tive of,  ib. ;  after  the  Restoration,  76; 
various  descriptions  of  her  person, 
77,  78;  her  contract  with  the  Pope, 
79 ;  account  of  her  journey  to  Eng- 
land on  her  marriage,  ib. ;  her  French 
establishment,  80 ;  anecdote  of  her 
confessor's  conduct,  81,  82;  the  dis- 
missal of  her  French  attendants,  85 ; 
the  amount  of  her  supposed  influence 
over  her  husband,  88. 

Henry  the  Seventh,  anecdote  of,  ii.163. 

Henry  the  Eighth,  anecdote  of,  ii.  163. 

Henry,  prince,  son  of  James  I.,  his 
skill  in  writing,  iv.  49. 

Henry,  the  English  historian,  loose 
and  general  in  his  references,  iii.  170. 

Heretics,  a  classification  of,  ii.  12. 

Hehmippus  Redivivus,  a  curious  jeau- 
d'esprit,  i.  416. 

Heylin,  a  popular  writer,  died  in  1662, 
iv.  105;  his  rival  biographers,  105- 
110;  his  history  of  the  Puritans  and 
Presbyterians,  133. 

High  Sheriff's  Oath,  exceptions  taken 
to,  by  Sir  Edward  Coke,  iv.  372. 


INDEX. 


459 


History,  of  events  which  have  not 
happened,  a  good  title  for  a  curious 
book,  iii.  182;  speculative  history  of 
the  battle  of  Worcester  had  it  'ter- 
minated differently,  183;  a  history 
of  this  kind  in  Livv,  184;  subjects 
for,  185-193. 

Historians,  remarks  on  the  infideli- 
ties of,  i.  267;  Italian,  commended, 
iv.  61 ;  notices  of  the  most  celebrated, 
63-67 ;  wrote  for  posterity,  67,  68 ; 
fate  of  Giannone,  who  published  in 
his  lifetime,  70;  observation  on,  ib. 

Holyd.vy,  Barton,  author  of  the  com- 
edy "  The  Marriage  of  the  Arts,"  ii. 
203. 

Home,  the  author  of  the  tragedy  of 
u  Douglas,''  persecuted  for  compos- 
ing it,  i.  274. 

Homer,  notice  of  his  detractors,  i.  74; 
profound  knowledge  of  history,  ge- 
ography, arts,  sciences,  and  surgery 
ascribed  to,  396. 

Hudibkas,  attacks  upon  Butler,  the 
author  of,  iii.  255 ;  various  accounts 
of  the  original  of  the  character,  256, 
257;  indecency  avoided  in,  258; 
epitaph  on  the  author  of,  259 ;  attacks 
on  Butler's  character,  259,  260 ;  and 
vindication  of,  260. 

Huguenot,  origin  of  the  term,  iii.  411. 

Hume,  his  carelessness  in  research,  iv. 
300. 

Hurd,  Bishop,  his  proposed  book  of 
parallels,  iv.  346. 

t 

Idleness  punished  among  the  an- 
cients, i.  277. 

Ikon  Basilike;  its  probable  effects 
had  it  appeared  a  week  sooner,  iii. 
190. 

Iliad,  in  a  nut-shell,  i.  365. 

Image-breakers,  proclamation  by 
Elizabeth  against,  iv.  288,  289. 

Imitators,  masterly,  i.  345-349. 

Imitations,  of  Cicero,  i.  124;  Le 
Bran's  religious  Virgil  and  Ovid,  ib. ; 
Sannazarius's  poem  de  Pavtu  Vir~ 
ginis,  ib. ;  Arruntius  an  ancient  imi- 
tator of  Sallust,  125 ;  modern,  ib. ; 
Arabian  anecdote,  126. 

Imitations  and  Similarities,  Poetical, 
various  and  curious  instances  of,  ii. 
260-279. 

Independents,  their  intolerance,  iii. 
417,  418. 

Index,  of  prohibited  books,  ii.  400; 
expurgatory,  ib. ;  Congregation  of 
the,  ib. ;  reprinted  by  the  heretics, 


with  annotations,  401 ;  effect  of  in 
raising  the  sale  of  books,  403. 
Indexes,  Fuller's  observations  on,  i. 
130. 

Inigo  Jones,  his  excellent  machinery 
for  exhibiting  masques,  iii.  331,  332. 

Ink,  inferiority  of  modern,  ii.  184; 
various  kinds  anciently  used,  187. 

Inquisition,  establishment  of,  at 
Toulouse,  i.  238;  in  Spain,  ib.;  first 
proceedings  of,  239;  taciturnity  of 
the  Spaniards  attributed  to,  239; 
anecdotes  concerning,  240-243;  his- 
tory of,  by  Limborch,  243. 

Intemperance  in  study,  i.  56. 

Isabella-colour,  origin  of  term,  i. 
297,  298. 

Italians,  their  national  genius  dra- 
matic, ii.  289. 

Italic  letter,  introduction  of,  i.  134; 
formerly  called  the  Aldine,  ib. 

J. 

Jacquerie,  iii.  411. 

James  the  First  gave  credit  to  physi- 
ognomy, i.  217 ;  injustice  done  to  his 
character  for  wit,  226;  distinguished 
as  Queen  James,  ii.  143;  his  ambas- 
sador's speech,  144;  cleanliness  of  his 
coui't,  ib  ;  his  effeminacy,  ib.;  his 
general  character,  ib. ;  his  imbecility 
in  his  amusements,  145,  146 ;  his  pe- 
dantry, 147,  148;  account  of  his 
death,  148;  results  of  the  author's 
further  inquiry  into  the  character  of, 
149 ;'  his  conduct  regarding  his  son's 
expedition  into  Spain,  154;  his  ob- 
jections to  Laud's  promotion,  iv. 
167;  his  character  vilified,  239;  his 
attention  to  the  education  of  his 
children,  240;  his  conduct  towards 
his  wife,  241-243. 

James  the  Second,  kept  a  diarv,  ii. 
390-398. 

Jamet  l'aine,  proposes  to  edit  a  new 
edition  of  the  Dictionary  of  Trevoux, 
iv.  124. 

Jansenists,  the  Methodists  of  France, 

ii.  38;  cause  a  Biographical  Dic- 
tionary to  be  compiled,  devoted  to 
their  cause,  in  opposition  to  that  of 
L'Avocat,  ib.;  specimens  of  this 
dictionary,  39,  40;  their  curses  never 
"lapsed  legacies,"  41. 

Jodelle,  Etienne,  the  first  author  of 
French  tragedy,  ii.  198. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  his  original  Memoran- 
dum of  Hints  for  the  Life  of  Pope, 

iii.  124-126. 

Jonson,  Ben,  Fuller's  character  of,  ii. 


4G0 


INDEX. 


46;  his  arrogance,  48;  his  Ode  on 
the  ill  reception  of  his  play  of"  The 
New  Inn"  quoted,  49;  Owen  Felt- 
ham's  Ode  in  reply,  50;  Randolph's 
Consolatory  Ode  to,  52, 53 ;  his  poem 
on  translation,  iii.  266. 

Joseph  V ella,  pretended  to  have  re- 
covered seventeen  of  the  lost  books 
of  Livy,  i.  201;  patronized  by  the 
king  of  Naples,  202;  discovered  and 
imprisoned,  203. 

Journals.  See  Litehary  Journals. 

Journalist,  Public,  indispensable  ac- 
quirements of  a,  i.  66. 

Jerusalem,  Arabic  chronicle  of,  only 
valuable  from  the  time  of  Mahomet, 
i.  266 ;  several  portions  translated  by 
Longuerue,  ib. 

Jesuits,  a  senate  of,  sent  by  Sigis- 
mund,  king  of  Sweden,  to  represent 
him  at  Stockholm,  destroyed  by 
stratagem,  i.  314-316. 

Jews  of  York,  history  of  their  self- 
destruction,  ii.  240-244. 

Judicial  Combats,  anecdotes  of,  i. 
232-234. 

K. 

Kings,  remark  of  St.  Chrysostom  on, 
i.  246;  willing  to  be  aided,  but  not 
surpassed,  ib. ;  anecdotes  of,  246-248; 
observations  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  and 
of  Dr.  Johnson  on,  248 ;  divine  hon- 
ours bestowed  on,  253;  dethroned, 
255 ;  anecdotes  of,  and  their  families, 
in  misfortune,  255-258;  descendants 
of,  found  among  the  dregs  of  the 
populace  in  conquered  countries, 
258:  funeral  honours  paid  to,  by  the 
Goths  and  Huns,  273. 

Kirk,  Colonel,  original  of  the  horrid 
tale  of,  related  by  Hume,  iv.  26. 

Kissing  hands,  customary  among  the 
ancients  as  an  act  of  adoration,  ii. 
247;  used  by  the  primeval  bishops, 
248;  declined  with  Paganism,  ib.; 
prevailed  at  Rome,  ib. ;  an  essential 
duty  under  the  emperors,  ib. ;  prac- 
tised in  every  known  country,  249. 

Knox,  John,  his  Machiavelian  politics, 
iv.  136;  his  opinions  on  toleration, 
146;  his  predecessors,  176,  177. 

L. 

La  Mothe  le  Vayer,  a  great  quoter, 
iii.  170. 

Lamps,  Perpetual,  i.  328;  possibility 

of,  ib. ;  Rosicrucians,  ib. 
La  Rue.  i.  344. 

Laureats,  sketch  of  the  history  of,  ii. 


134;  ancient,  ib.;  Petrarch  the  first 
modern,  ib. ;  degrees  granted  to,  ib. ; 
formula  employed  in  granting  the 
degree  of,  ib.;  their  honours  dis- 
graced in  Italy,  135;  Querno  crown- 
ed in  a  joke,  ib. ;  honours  lavished 
on,  by  Maximilian  I.,  136;  honours 
still  conferred  on,  in  Germany,  ib. ; 
unknown  among  the  French,  ib. ; 
appointment  of  in  Spain,  ib.;  in 
England  never  solemnly  crowned, 
ib. ;  salary  of  in  England,  137. 

Lautour  du  Chatel,  a  neglected  con- 
tributor to  the  Dictionary  of  Tre- 
voux,  procures  the  mediation  of  the 
French  government,  iv.  123,  124. 

Lazzaroni,  iii.  412. 

Lazzi,  side-play,  ii.  300. 

League,  the,  its  pretext  and  its  cause, 
iv  21,  22. 

Learned  men,  persecution  of,  i.  78; 
poverty  of,  81 ;  imprisonment  of,  87 ; 
amusements  of,  90. 

Le  Clerc,  antagonist  of  Bayle,  and 
author  of  three  Bibliotheques,  the 
Universelle  et  Historique,  Choisie, 
and  Ancienne  et  Moderne,  i.  64. 

Le  Fevre,  Nicholas,  edition  of  his 
works  by  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy,  iv. 
117  and  note. 

Legends,  origin  of,  i.  148 ;  Golden,  149 ; 
of  the  Seven  Sleepers,  ib. ;  account  of 
several,  150-153 ;  Golden,  abounds  in 
religious  indecencies,  ii.  30 ;  of  St. 
Mary  the  Egyptian,  ib. 

Leibnitz,  anecdote  of,  iv.  332. 

Lenglet  du  Fresnoy,  his  "  Methode 
pour  etudier  l'Histoire,"  iv.  Ill;  his 
peculiar  character,  ib.;  history  of 
his  M6thode,  112-114,  and  note,  ib.; 
his  literary  history,  115,116;  a  be- 
liever in  aichymy,"ll6;  his  political 
adventures,  117-119. 

Le  Kain,  anecdote  of,  i.  336. 

Leo  the  Tenth,  motive  of  his  projected 
alliance  against  the  Turks,  iv.  20. 

L'Estrange,  Sir  Roger,  a  strong  party 
writer  for  Charles  II.,  i.  277;  his 
iEsop's  Fables,  ib. 

Lettres  de  Cachet,  invented  by 
(Father  Joseph,  confessor  to  Riche- 
lieu, iv.  82. 

Libel,  singular  means  used  to  dis- 
cover the  author  of  a.  ii.  191. 

Libels  on  the  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
iii.  108. 

Liberty  of  the  Press,  restrictions  on, 
ii.  399-414;  did  not  commence  till 
1694,  413;  reflections  on,  414.  See 
Censoks. 

Libraries,  i.  49 ;  celebrated  Egyptian 


INDEX. 


461 


and  "Roman,  51 ;  public,  in  Italy  and 
England,  52;  in  France  and  Germa- 
nv,  54,  55;  use  of  lights  in,  55;  that 
Of  the  Palatine  Apollo  destroyed 
by  Pope  Gregory  VII.,  104;  in  Bo- 
hemia, destroyed  by  the  Jesuits,  105 ; 
destruction  of,  under  Henry  VIII., 
ib.;  astronomical,  in  the  ark  of 
Noah,  394;  Irish,  before  the  Flood, 
395;  Adam's,  ib. ;  modern  opinion 
on  their  utility,  iv.  249. 

Licensers  of  the  Press.  See  Censors. 

Lights,  in  public  libraries,  ordered  in 
France  by  Charles  V.,  i.  55 ;  objec- 
tion to,  55. 

Lilly,  the  astrologer,  notices  of,  i. 
369-372 ;  his  great  work,  372 ;  an  ex- 
quisite rogue,  373. 

Lipogrammatic  works,  i.  385. 

Lipsius,  Justus,  his  opinions  on  tolera- 
tion, iv.  148,  149. 

Literary  Journals,  i.  60;  originated 
with  the  Journal  des  Scavans,  by 
Denis  de  Sallo,  counsellor  in  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris,  62 ;  Nouvelles  de  la 
R^publique  des  Lettres,  published 
by  Bayle  in  1684 — continued  by  Ber- 
nard, and  afterwards  by  Basnage  in 
his  Histoire  des  Ouvrages  des  Sca- 
vans, 63,  64;  Le  Clerc's  Bibliothe- 
ques  Universelle  et  Historique,  Cho- 
isie,  and  Ancienne  et  Moderne,  64; 
Apostolo  Zeno's  Giornale  de  Littera- 
ti  d' Italia,  ib.;  Bibliotheque  Ger- 
manique,  64;  Bibliotheque  Britanni- 
que,  ib. ;  Journal  Britannique  by  Dr. 
Maty,  ib.;  Keview  conducted  by 
Maty,  jun.,  ib.;  M^moires  de  Tre"- 
voux,  65;  Journal  Litte>aire,  ib.; 
Memoirs  of  Literature  and  Present 
State  of  the  Republic  of  Letters,  the 
best  early  English,  ib. ;  monthly,  ib. 

Literary  Controversy,  specimens  of 
Luther's  mode  of  managing,  i.  401; 
Calvin's  conduct  of,  403;  Beza  imi- 
tates Calvin's  style  in,  ib. ;  opinion 
of  Bishop  Bedell  on,  404;  conduct  of 
the  fathers  in,  ib. ;  grossness  used  in, 
406 ;  of  the  Nominalists  and  Realists, 
ib. 

Literary  Impostures,  i.  198 ;  by  Va- 
rillas,  the  French  histoi-ian,  ib ;  sup- 
posed by  Gemelli  Carreri,  but  after- 
wards discovered  to  be  fact,  199  ; 
Du  Halde's  account  of  China  com- 
piled, ib. ;  Damberger's  Travels,  ib. ; 
titles  of  works  announced  by  the 
historiographer  Paschal,  his  works 
at  his  death  amounting  to  six  pages, 
200 ;  by  Gregorio  Leti,  ib. ;  forgeries 
of  Testaments  Politiques,  ib.;  pre- 


tended translations,  ib.;  Travels  of 
Rabbi  Benjamin,  ib.;  by  Annius 
Viterbo,  201;  by  Joseph  Vella,  who 
pretended  to  have  recovered  seven- 
teen of  the  lost  books  of  Livy,  ib.; 
by  Medina  Conde,  203;  by  George 
Psalmanazar,  ib.;  Lauder's,  ib.  ; 
Ireland's,  ib.;  by  a  learned  Hindu, 
204;  anecdotes  concerning,  ib. 

Literary  Impositions,  curious  anec- 
dotes of,  i.  348,  349. 

Literary  Forgeries,  by  Dr.  Berken- 
hout,  a  letter  from  Peele  to  Marlow, 
ii.  47;  by  George  Steevens,  iv.  198; 
history  of  one,  200,  201;  by  Horace 
Walpole,  204;  anecdote  of  Steevens 
and  Gough,  205,  206,  and  notes;  by 
De  Grassis,  ib. ;  by  Annius  of  Viter- 
bo, 207;  and  mischievous  conse- 
quences of,  ib. ;  Sanchoniathon,  208; 
of  Etruscan  antiquities,  209;  the 
false  Decretals  of  Isidore,  210,211; 
in  the  prayer-book  of  Columbus,  211 ; 
in  the  Virgil  of  Petrarch,  ib.;  by 
the  Duke  de  la  Valliere,  213;  by 
Lauder,  213;  by  Psalmanazar,  214. 

Literary  Follies,  instances  of  various 
in  the  fantastical  composition  of 
verses,  i.  385-401 ;  strange  researches 
made  in  antediluvian  times  to  be 
classed  with,  394,  395 ;  anecdote  of 
a  malicious  one,  397;  various  anec- 
dotes concerning,  398-401. 

Literary  Blunders,  a  pair  of  lexico- 
graphical, i.  398 ;  instances  of  curi- 
ous, 415-423. 

Literary  Fashions,  ii.  283;  applause 
given  to  a  work  supposed  to  be  writ- 
ten by  a  celebrated  man,  ib. ;  notices 
of  various,  284;  love  all  the  fashion, 
ib.;  Spenser's  Faerie  Queen  be- 
came one,  285;  the  translation  of 
Greek  tragedies,  a,  ib. ;  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  ib.;  of  the  time  of 
Charles  I.,  ib. ;  of  Charles  II.,  and 
of  more  modern  times,  286. 

Loxgolius,  or  Longueil,  composed  a 
biographical  parallel  between  Bu- 
d?eus  and  Erasmus,  iv.  347,  348. 

Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  effect  of  his 
death,  iii.  192. 

Louis  the  Eighth,  singular  anecdote 
of  the  cause  of  his  death,  ii.  190. 

Louis  the  Eleventh,  anecdote  of,  ii.  163. 

Louis  the  Twelfth,  cause  of  his  death, 
ii.  192. 

Louis  the  Fourteenth,  chose  his  cour- 
tiers by  the  rules  of  physiognomy, 
i.  216 ;  some  remarks  on  his  real  char- 
acter, iii.  207;  passages  suppressed  in 
his  instruction  to  the  Dauphin,  ib 


462 


INDEX. 


Louis?:  L'  Abe,  the  Aspasia  of  Lyons, 
ii.  25;  wrote  the  morality  of  "Love 
and  Foil}-,"  ib. 

Loups-gakoux,  iv.  194. 

Lucullus,  description  of  the  library 
of,  L  61. 

Luther,  Martin,  remarks  on,  and  ex- 
tracts from,his  controversial  writings, 

i.  401,  402;  Jansenist  character  of, 

ii.  40,  41;  anecdote  of,  from  Guic- 
ciardini,  iii.  187;  his  political  con- 
duct, iv.  21. 

Luynes,  Due  de,  his  origin,  ii.  164. 

Luxury,  in  dress,  an  old  dramatist's 
opinion  on,  iv.  317;  doctrines  of  po- 
litical economy  concerning,  ib.;  ex- 
cessive amongst  our  ancestors,  319; 
the  Pas  de  Sandricourt,  319-322; 
ruinous  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth, 
James  I.,  and  Charles  I.  323. 

M. 

Mabbe,  James,  translator  of  "  Guz- 
man" and  "  Celestina,"  Spanish 
plays,  iii.  266,  267;  Ben  Jonson's 
verses  in  praise  of,  ib. 

Machiavel  discovered  the  secret  of 
comparative  history,  iv.  63. 

Mackenzie,  Sir  George,  notice  of  his 
Treatise  on  Solitude,  ii.  211-213. 

Mad-song,  specimen  of  an  ancient, 

iii.  51. 

Magic,  instances  of  many  learned  men 
accused  of,  i.  78,  79 ;  Solomon  ac- 
counted an  adept  in,  187. 

Magius,  Charles,  a  noble  Venetian,  iv. 
13 ;  his  travels  and  adventures  con- 
tained in  a  volume  of  paintings,  ib. ; 
detailed  description  of,  13-18. 

Magliabechi,  Anthony,  celebrated 
for  his  great  knowledge  of  books,  ii. 
64 ;  description  of  him  and  his  mode 
of  life,  64-66. 

Maillard,  Oliver,  a  famous  cordelier 
and  preacher,  i.  338. 

Maine,  Due  de,  instituted  the  Journal 
de  Tre>oux,  iv.  121;  and  the  Dic- 
tionary of  TreVoux,  ib. 

Maintenon,  Madame  de,  marries  Scar- 
ron,  ii.  98 ;  corrects  his  style,  ib. 

Malignants,  iii.  416. 

Mandrake,  i.  332. 

Manners,  anecdotes  of  European,  ii. 
188-198 ;  domestic,  among  the  Eng- 
lish, 196-198. 

Manuscripts,  more  valued  by  the 
Romans  than  vases  of  gold,  i.  50; 
two  thousand  collected  by  Trithe- 
mius,  abbot  of  Spanlieim,  who  died 
1516,  55;  recovery  of,  67,  68;  of  the 
classics,  disregarded  and  mutilated 


by  the  monks,  68 ;  researches  for,  at 
the  restoration  of  letters,  69 ;  great 
numbers  imported  from  Asia,  69,  70 ; 
of  Quintilian  discovered  by  Po^gio 
under  a  heap  of  rubbish,  70 ;  of  Ta- 
citus found  in  a  Westphalian  mon- 
astery, ib. ;  of  Justinian's  code  found 
in  a  city  of  Calabria,  70;  loss  of,  ib. ; 
unfair  use  made  of  by  learned  men, 
71;  anecdotes  concerning,  72-74;  of 
Galileo,  partly  destroyed  by  his 
wife's  confessor,  79;  ancient,  fre- 
quently adorned  with  portraits  of  the 
authors,  94:  destruction  of,  at  the 
Reformation,  105 ;  of  Lord  Mansfield 
destroyed  in  the  riots  of  1780,  and  of 
Dr.  Priestley  by  the  mob  at  Birming- 
ham, 107 ;  loss  of  many  of  Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montagu's  letters,  108:  loss 
of  letters  addressed  to  Peiresc,  ib. ; 
of  Leonardo  da  Vinci,109 ;  anecdotes 
of  the,  of  several  celebrated  works, 

ii.  41;  description  of  the  ancient 
adornments  of,  ii.  185, 186;  of  Pope's 
versions  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey, 
280 ;  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  bequeath- 
ed to  Lincoln's  Inn,  to  avoid  their 
mutilation  by  the  licensers  of  the 
press,  405 ;  slaves  employed  to  copy, 

iii.  148 ;  of  the  Vision  of  Alberico, 
preserved  in  the  king's  library  at 
Paris,  175,  176;  of  Galileo's  annota- 
tions on  Tasso,  200,  201 ;  destruction 
of  Hugh  Broughton's,  by  Speed,  202 ; 
destruction  of  Leland's,  by  Polydore 
Vergil,  202,  203 ;  dilapidation  of  the 
Harleian,  203;  suppression  of  one 
relating  to  Sixtus  IV.  by  Fabroni, 
204;  of  the  Marquis  of  Halifax  sup- 
pressed, ib. ;  Earl  of  Pulteney's  and 
Earl  of  Anglesea's  MS.  Memoirs  sup- 
pressed, 205;  anecdotes  of  the  sup- 
pression of  various,  205-211 ;  mutila- 
tors of,  211,  212 ;  collections  of,  em- 
barrassing at  first  sight,  yet  neces- 
sary to  the  historian,  iv.  297,  298 ;  of 
Oldys's,  iii.  544. 

Marana,  John  Paul,  author  of  the 
Turkish  Spy,  ii.  44,  45. 

Marbles,  presenting  representations 
of  natural  forms,  i.  330,  331. 

Mare  Clausum,  written  by  Selden  in 
answer  to  the  Mare  Liberum  of  Gro- 
tius,  ii.  246 ;  copies  preseiwed  in  the 
chest  of  the  Exchequer  and  in  the 
Court  of  Admiralty,  ib. 

Marionettes,  improved  by  the  Eng- 
lish, iv.  131. 

Marlborough,  the  great  Duke  of, 
(See  Blenheim,)  account  of  his 
wealth,  iii.  422. 


INDEX. 


4C3 


Maholles,  Abbe*  de,  a  most  egregious 
scribbler,  ii.  12;  wrote  his  own  mem- 
oirs, 13 ;  good  advice  in  the  postscript 
to  the  epistle  dedicatory  of  that  work, 
14;  his  memoirs,  iii.  309;  anecdote 
of  him  and  I)e  L'Etang,  a  critic,  310 ; 
notices  of  his  voluminous  works,  311, 
312;  his  magnificent  collection  of 
prints,  313. 

Marot,  Clement,  his  character,  iii. 
236;  his  translation  of  the  Psalms, 
237 ;  sung  to  the  airs  of  popular  bal- 
lads, 239;  his  Psalms  the  fashion, 
240;  edition  published  by  Theodore 
Beza,  set  to  music,  ib. ;  "his  Psalms 
declared  Lutheran,  and  himself  for- 
ced to  fly  to  Geneva,  ib. 

Mar-Prelate,  the  book  suppressed, 
iii.  212. 

Masks,  worn  by  Italian  actors,  ii.  296. 

Masques,  notices  of  magnificent,  in 
the  time  of  Charles  1.  iii.  65,  66;  the 
farewell  masque  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  112;  mistaken  notions 
of  commentators  regarding,  iii.  324; 
their  real  nature,  325,  326,  327 ;  de- 
scription of  the  masque  of  Night  and 
the  Hours,  328. 

Massillon,  i.  345. 

Master-pieces,  i.  347. 

Master  of  the  Ceremonies,  created  by 
James  the  First,  ii.  376. 

Matrimony,  its  suitableness  to  learned 
men  considered,  i.  431,  432;  opinions 
of  Sir  Thomas  Browne  upon,  432 ; 
not  borne  out  by  his  practice,  ib. 

Maximilian  the  First,  founds  a  poet- 
ical college  at  Vienna,  ii.  136. 

Meals,  hours  of,  ii.  193. 

Medal,  struck  by  the  Catholics  to 
commemorate  the  massacre  of  the 
Huguenots,  iv.  144. 

Medals,  satiric,  used  as  money  in  the 
Saturnalia,  iv.  30,  31 ;  modern  ap- 
plications of,  39. 

Medicine  and  Morals,  considerations 
on  their  connection,  iii.  225-231; 
connection  of  the  mind  with  the 
body,  232. 

Medina  Conde,  forges  deeds  and  in- 
scriptions to  benefit  the  Church,  i. 
203 ;  sold  a  bracelet  to  the  Morocco 
ambassador,  as  part  of  the  treasure 
of  the  last  Moorish  king,  yet  in  fact 
fabricated  by  himself,  ib. 

Memoirs,  remarks  on  their  interest  as 
compared  with  history,  ii.  142. 

Mendelssohn,  anecdote  of,  ii.  61. 

Mendicity,  punished  among  the  Jews 
and  nations  of  antiquity,  i.  276-278; 
first  made  a  trade  of  by  liberated 


Christian  slaves,  279;  punishment  of 
in  China,  280. 

Menot,  Michael,  a  celebrated  preacher, 
specimen  of  his  sermons,  i.  340-342. 

Mental  Disorders,  singular  mode  of 
cure  of,  iii.  228;  remarkable  anec- 
dote, 229. 

Metempsychosis,  doctrines  of,  advo- 
cated in  the  present  age,  i.  268;  no- 
tion long  extant  in  Greece  before  the 
time  of  Pythagoras,  ib. ;  taught  by 
the  Egyptians,  ib.;  entertained  by 
many  Eastern  nations  and  bv  the 
Druids,  269;  Welsh  system  of,  ex- 
plained by  Sharon  Turner,  ib. ;  be- 
lieved in  Mexico,  270;  Plutarch's 
description  of,  270,  271. 

Michael  Angelo,  anecdote  of,  i. 
345. 

Mignard,  a  celebrated  painter,  curi- 
ous anecdote  concerning,  i.  346. 

Milton,  his  controversy  with  Salma- 
sius  and  Moras  conducted  with  mu- 
tual revilings,  i.  221-223;  absurdly 
criticized  by  Bentley,  ii.  35-38;  in- 
debted to  Andreini  for  the  first  idea 
of  Pai*adise  Lost,  ii.  314;  his  works 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  both  Royal- 
ist and  Republican  licensers,  408; 
his  Areopagitica,  410;  a  passage  in 
his  History  of  England  suppressed, 
but  preserved  in  a  pamphlet,  206; 
his  Comus  escaped  the  destruction 
of  the  Bridge  water  papers,  209;  the 
story  of  him  and  the  Italian  lady, 
probably  an  invention  of  George 
Steevens,  iv.  200;  copied  from  a 
French  story  purporting  to  be  of  the 
15th  century,  201. 

Milliners'  bills,  ancient  and  modern, 
ii.  198. 

Mimes,  Arch-mime  followed  the  body 
of  Vespasian  at  his  funeral,  iv.  31. 

Mimi,  an  impudent  race  of  buffoons,  ii. 
290 ;  harlequin,  a  Roman  mime,  292, 
and  note. 

Ministers,  origin  of  the  term  as  ap- 
plied to  the  pastors  of  Christian 
churches,  i.  195;  palaces  built  by, 
notices  of  several,  iv.  71-76;  Sir 
Robert  Walpole's  remarks  on  the  im- 
prudence of  their  erecting  such,  77 ; 
yet  builds  one  himself,  ib. 

Minstrels,  ancient  and  modern,  pick- 
pockets, ii.  319,  note. 

Mishna,  see  Talmud. 

Missals,  gross  adornments  of,  ii.  29,  30. 

Modern  stories  and  plots,  many  de- 
rived from  the  East,  i.  173,  174. 

Monk,  General,  anecdote  of  him  and 
his  wife,  ii.   150;  his  conduct  to- 


4C4 


INDEX. 


wards  Charles  EL  at  his  landing,  iv. 
304,  305. 

Montagu,  Lady  Mary  Wortley,  sup- 
pression of  her  MSS.,  iii.  208,  209. 

Montkleury,  a  French  actor,  death 
of,  i.  334. 

Montluc,  Bishop  of  Valence,  his  ne- 
gotiations for  the  election  of  the 
Duke  of  Anjou,  as  King  of  Poland, 
iv.  258-274. 

Moralities,  see  Mysteries  and  Mo- 
ralities. 

Morality  of  "Every  Man,"  referred 
by  Percy  to  the  class  of  tragedy,  iii. 8. 

More,  Doctor,  his  extravagant  Pla- 
tonic opinions,  i.  296. 

Morus,  controversy  of  Salmasms  with 
Milton,  continued  by,  with  mutual 
abuse,  i.  221-224. 

Music,  use  of,  in  discovering  disposi- 
tions by  the  voice,  i.  219;  influence 
of,  in  the  cure  of  diseases,  358,  359; 
effect  of,  on  animals,  361. 

Mutilations  commonly  practised  in 
the  middle  ages,  ii.  189. 

Mysteries  and  Moralities  introduced 
by  pilgrims,  ii.  15;  subsequently  dis- 
tinguished characters  actors  in,  ib.; 
performed  in  open  plains,  ib. ;  indul- 
gence granted  to  frequenters  of,  16 ; 
at  Chester,  ib.;  singular  anecdotes 
concerning  a  mystery,  ib.;  speci- 
mens from  French  mysteries,  17-20 ; 
observations  of  Bayle  and  Warton 
on,  ib. ;  distinguished  from  each 
other,  ib. ;  specimen  of  a  morality, 
21 ;  moralities  allegorical  dramas,  ib. ; 
passion  of  Rene  d' Anjou,  for,  23; 
triple  stage  used  for  representation 
of,  24 ;  anecdote  relating  to  an  Eng- 
lish mystery,  ib. ;  morality  of  "  Love 
and  Folly,"  25. 

N. 

Names,  anecdotes  relating  to,  and  to 
their  effect  on  mankind,  ii.  228-240. 

Nardi,  his  history  of  Florence,  iv.  66. 

Neal,  his  account  of  the  Nonconform- 
ists, iv.  133. 

Needham,  Marchamont,  the  great  pa- 
triarch of  newspaper  writers,  i.  228 ; 
short  account  of,  ib. 

Neology,  or  the  novelty  of  new  words 
and  phrases,  remarks  on,  iv.  343; 
Neological  Dictionary  proposed  by 
Lord  Chesterfield,  347;  not  always 
to  be  condemned,  ib. ;  examples  of 
the  introduction  of  various  new 
words  in  French  and  English,  347, 
348;  the  term  "  father-land  "  intro- 


duced by  the  author,  352;  pictur- 
esque words,  ib. 

Nerli,  Philip,  his  "  Commentarj  de 
Fatti  Civili,"  iv.  66. 

Newcastle,  Margaret,  Duche  s  of, 
celebrated  among  literary  wives,  i. 
425-428;  her  account  of  her  hus- 
band's mode  of  life,  ii.  196,  197. 

Newspapers,  originated  in  Italy,  i. 
224;  called  Gazettas,  ib. ;  first  a 
Venetian,  published  monthly,  ib.; 
circulated  in  manuscript,  ib. ;  pro- 
hibited by  Gregory  XIII.,  225;  first 
English,  225,  226;  much  used  by  the 
English  during  the  Civil  Wars  of 
Cromwell,  and  notices  of  these,  227, 
228;  origin  of,  in  France,  231;  first 
daily  one  after  the  Restoration,  ib; 
only  one  daily,  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne,  ib.;  union  between  them  and 
literary  periodicals,  opinions  ex- 
pressed on,  ib. 

Newton,  remarks  on,  iv.  332. 

Niccoli,  Nicholas,  founded  the  first 
public  library  in  Italy,  i.  52. 

Nicknames,  use  of,  practised  by  po- 
litical parties,  iii.  409 ;  instances  of 
many,  410-414;  serve  to  heat  the 
minds  of  the  people,  415;  of  various 
Parliaments,  ib. ;  effect  of,  on  minis- 
ters, 420. 

Nobility,  conduct  of  kings  towards, 
ii.  165. 

Noblemen  turned  critics,  pair  of  an- 
ecdotes concerning,  i.  197,  198. 

Nominalists  and  Realists,  i.  406,  407. 

Nostrodamus,  consulted  by  Catherine 
de'  Medici,  i.  370. 

Novels,  the  successors  of  romances, 
ii.  128;  Adam  Smith's  favourable 
opinion  of,  129. 

Numerical  Figures,  of  Indian  origin, 
i.  367;  introduction  of  Arabic,  368; 
Roman,  ib. ;  origin  of  Roman,  ib.; 
falsification  of  Arabic,  ib 

O. 

Obscurity,  in  style,  taught  by  a  pro- 
fessor, ii.  70,  71;  Lycophron  pos- 
sessed this  taste,  72 ;  defence  of,  by 
Thomas  Anglus,  ib. ;  Gravina's  ob- 
servations on,  73. 

Old  Age,  progress  of,  in  new  studies, 
i.  158;  remark  of  Adam  Smith,  on 
resumption  of  former  studies  in,  ib. 

Oldys,  a  literary  antiquary,iv.  42r>,426 ; 
caricature  of,  by  Grose,  427 ;  released 
from  the  Fleet  "by  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, and  made  Norroy  King  at  Arms, 
ib.  and  note ;  author  of  the  anacreon- 


INDEX. 


4G.3 


tic,  "  Busy,  curious,  thirsty  fly," 
428;  placed  in  the  library  of  the 
Earl  of  Oxford,  429;  his  integrity, 
ib. ;  his  literary  labours,  429-431 ;  his 
life  of  Rawleigh,  431;  history  of  his 
two  annotated  copies  of  Langbaine, 
433-435;  fate  of  his  MSS.,435;  his 
diaries,  438;  his  readiness  to  aid 
others  with  his  knowledge,  439,440; 
his  Dissertation  on  English  poetry, 
curtailed  by  the  bookseller,  440 ;  ex- 
tracts from  his  diaries,  442-445 ;  his 
intended  Life  of  Shakspeare,  446; 
anecdote  of  him  and  Pope,  ib. 

Opinions,  suppressed,  modes  of  ex- 
pressing them  in  ancient  and  modern 
times,  iv.  29;  in  the  Saturnalia,  30; 
by  carvings  and  illuminations,  32; 
preceding  the  Reformation,  34;  in- 
stance of  the  Olivetan  Bible,  35; 
by  medals  and  prints,  36-43. 

Orchis,  Bee  and  Fly,  i.  331, 

Ordeals,  i.  232-238. 

Ordinaries,  the  "  Hells  "  of  the  17th 
century,  ii.  340;  description  of  the 
arts  practised  at,  340-342. 

Orobio,  his  description  of  his  im- 
prisonment in  the  Inquisition,  i.  239. 

Osman,  Sultan,  promotes  his  gardener, 
ii.  163. 

Oxford,  Edwai-d  Vere,  Earl  of,  his 
secret  history,  ii.  430-432. 

P. 

Palingenesis. — See  Regeneration. 

Pamphlets,  sketch  of  Myles  Davis's 
history  of,  i.  442 ;  origin  and  rise  of, 
443;  one  pretended  to  have  been 
composed  by  Jesus  Christ,  ib. ;  Alex- 
ander Pope  denounced  as  a  plotter 
in  a,  ib. ;  etymologies  of  the  word, 
444-446. 

Pantomime,  Italian  verses  in  praise  of, 
and  translation  of,  ii.287 ;  Cervantes's 
and  Bayle's  delight  in,  287,  288;  har- 
lequin, 288 ;  of  the  lower  Italians  in 
their  gestures,  289;  treatises  on,  ib.; 
transmitted  from  the  Romans,  290; 
improvement  of,  by  Ruzzante,  295 ; 
the  history  of  a  people  traced  in, 
,  297;  description  of  the  various  char- 
acters in  Italian,  298-302. 

Pantomimi,  tragic  actors  usually 
mute,  ii.  291 ;  Seneca's  taste  for,  ib. ; 
their  influence  over  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, 292. 

Pantomimical  Characters.  See  Pan- 
tomime; Massinger  and  Moliere  in- 
debted  to,  ii.    311;    remarks  on 
Shakspeare's  "  Pantaloon,"  312. 
vol.  iv.  30 


Paper,  among  the  ancients,  ii.  184- 
186;  introduction  into  England,  186, 
187;  various  sorts  of  modern,  ib. 

Paracelsus,  his  receipt  for  making  a 
fairy,  iv.  186. 

Paradise  Lost,  prose  and  verse  ver- 
sions of,  i.  398. 

Park,  Mungo,  his  book  interpolated 
and  altered  by  his  editor,  Bryan 
Edwards,  iii.  212. 

Parker,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  iv.  148, 
note. 

Parodies,  anecdote  relating  to,  iii. 
212;  resembles  mimicry,  213;  not 
made  in  derision,  ib. ;  practised  by 
the  ancients,  ib. ;  ancient  of  Homer, 
214;  modern,  215;  dramatic,  anec- 
dotes of  modern,  217;  legitimate  use 
of,  220. 

Parpaillots,  or  Parpirolles,  iii.  411. 

Particular  Providence,  various  opin- 
ions on,  iii.  182,  183;  the  granting  a 
free-conduct  to  Luther,  by  Charles 
V.,  possibly  one,  187. 

Pasquin  and  Marforio,  account  of,  i. 
287. 

Pasquinades,  origin  of,  and  instances 

of  several,  i.  287. 
Patrons,  their  treatment  of  authors, 

i.  139,  140 ;  anecdotes  regarding,  140- 

142;  opinion  of  Dr.  Johnson  upon, 

141. 

Paulus  Jovius,  description  of  the 
country-house  and  collections  of 
statues,  books,  and  portraits  belong- 
ing to,  i.  98,  99;  description  of  the 
villa  built  by,  iv.  314. 

Pazzi,  Cavaliero,  founder  of  the  Acca- 
demia  Colombaria,  iii.  247. 

Peg-tankards,  iii.  29,  and  note. 

Peiresc,  a  man  of  incessant  literary 
occupations,  and  an  enthusiast  in 
the  importation  of  exotic  plants,  ii. 
325;  anecdotes  of,  iv.  314. 

Pembroke,  Anne,  Countess  of,  de- 
signed a  history  of  her  family,  iv. 
341. 

Perfumery  and  costly  washes,  in- 
troduced into  England  by  the  Earl 
of  Oxford,  i.  307. 

Petitions,  to  Parliament  against  the 
drama,  iii.  20;  mock,  ib. 

Petitioners  and  Abhorrers,  iii.  418. 

Petrarch,  formula  used  at  his  coro- 
nation,with  the  Laurel  Crown,  ii.  134, 
135 ;  his  passion  for  literary  com- 
position, iii.  304;  his  Laura,  iv.  212. 

Pictorial  Biography.— See  Magius. 

Pisistratus,  the  first  projector 
amongst  the  Greeks  of  a  collection 
of  the  works  of  the  learned,  i.  50. 


466 


INDEX. 


Philip  the  First  of  Spain,  ii.  151 ;  his 
marriage  with  Mary  of  England,  ib ; 
sought  Queen  Elizabeth  in  marriage, 
152 ;  offered  himself  to  three  different 
sisters-in-law,  ib. ;  his  advice  to  his 
son,  ib. ;  his  death-bed,  ib. ;  his  epi- 
taph, 153. 

Philosophy,  dreams  at  the  dawn  of, 
iv.  179-191;  mechanical  fancies,  192, 
193;  inquiries  after  prodigies,  193; 
further  anecdotes  of,  194-196. 

Physiognomy,  credited  by  Louis  XIV. 
and  James  L,  i.  216,  217. 

Plagiarism,  in  printed  sermons,  ii. 
70;  a  professor  of,  71. 

Plants,  presenting  representations  of 
natural  forms,  i.  331,  332. 

Platina,  his  account  of  his  persecu- 
tion and  tortures,  for  having  been 
a  member  of  the  "  Academy  "  at 
Rome,  iii.  250,  251. 

Plato,  Aristotle  studied  under,  i.210; 
parallel  between  him  and  Aristotle, 
ib. ;  contest  between  him  and  Aris- 
totle, 211;  the  model  of  the  moderns 
who  profess  to  be  anti-poetical,  ii. 
108;  a  true  poet  himself,  ib. 

Platonism,  modern,  originated  among 
the  Italians,  i.  292,  293 ;  system  of,  by 
Gemisthus  Pletho,  293,*'  294;  pro- 
fessed by  a  Mr.  Thomas  Taylor,  295 ; 
bv  a  scholar  in  the  reign  of  Louis 
XII.,  296;  by  Dr.  More,  ib. 

Pletho,  or  Gemisthus,  a  remarkable 
modern  professor  of  Platonism,  i. 
293-295. 

Platts  or  Plots,  theatrical  discovery 
of  curious  ones  at  Dulwich  College, 
and  remarks  upon,  ii.  811-314;  see 
Scenario. 

Plott,  Dr.  his  project  of  a  tour,  iv. 
193. 

Plunder,  etymology  of,  iii.  417,  and 
note. 

Poets,  Plato's  description  of  the  feel- 
ings of,  in  the  Phsedon,  ii.  108 ;  opin- 
ions of  various  learned  men  on  the 
works  of,  109-112;  remarks  on  the 
habits  of,  111,  112;  behaviour  of 
Frederic  King  of  Prussia  (father  of 
the  great  Frederic)  to,  112;  differ- 
ent conduct  of  other  kings  towards, 
113,  114;  honours  paid  to,  in  the 
early  stage  of  poetry,  114;  anecdote 
of  Margaret  of  Scotland  and  Alain 
the  poet,  ib. ;  opinions  of  the  pious 
on  the  works  of,  115;  too  frequently 
merely  poets,  ib. ;  hints  to  young, 
116;  to  veteran,  117 ;  mistresses  of, 
118;  change  their  opinions  of  their 
productions,  119;  antiquity  of  the 


custom  of  crowning,  134:  abolished 
in  the  reign  of  Theodosius,  ib. ;  re- 
gal, 136,  137;  condemned,  iii.  37,  42; 
laureat,  see  Laukeats. 

Poetical  Garland,  i.  332-334. 

Point-device,  etymology  of,  iv.  73; 
and  note. 

Poland,  History  of  the  election  of  the 
Duke  of  Anjou  as  King  of,  iv.  255- 
274. 

Polichinello. — See  Punch. 

Politian,  Angelo,  a  polished  Italian 
writer  of  the  15th  century,  ii.  137; 
his  dedicatory  epistle,  prefixed  to 
his  epistles,  138-140. 

Political  Reports,  false  maxim  on 
the  efficacy  of,  iii.  194;  ancient  in- 
stances, 195;  of  the  battle  of  Lutzen, 
ib. ;  on  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  196 ; 
other  anecdotes,  modern  and  ancient, 
of  the  effect  of,  196-199. 

Political  Religionism,  illustrations 
of  its  effects,  iv.  131-138. 

Political  Prognostics. — See  Predic- 
tions. Dugdale  hastened  his  labours 
in  anticipation  of  the  disorders  of  the 
Rebellion,  iv.  159. 

Political  Parallels,  iv.  165. 

Polydore  Vergil,  a  destroyer  of 
MSS.  iii.  203. 

Pomponius  L.etus,  in  the  15th  centu- 
ry raised  altai-s  to  Romulus,  iii.  249; 
chief  of  the  "Academy  "  at  Rome, 
250. 

Pope,  his  manuscripts,  ii.  280 ;  passage 
from,  with  the  various  alterations, 
281,  282 ;  Dr.  Johnson's  memorandum 
of  hints  for  the  life  of,  iii.  124;  anec- 
dote of,  iv.  313. 

Pope,  project  of  the,  for  placing  a  car- 
dinal on  the  throne  of  England,  iii. 
271;  favoured  by  Henry  IV.,  ib. 

Popes,  their  early  "humility  and  subse- 
quent arrogance,  ii.  249;  Celestine 
kicks  off  the  crown  of  the  Emperor 
Henry  VI.,  ib.;  their  infallibility  first 
asserted,  250 ;  protest  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Vienna  against,  ib. ;  their  ex- 
communications, 251. 

Porta,  John  Baptista  and  John  Vin- 
cent, found  the  academy  "  Degli 
Oziosi,"  iii.  252. 

Portraits,  of  authors,  of  celebrated 
men,  i.  94-100;  of  the  Fugger  fam- 
ily, 54;  commonly  prefixed  to  an- 
cient manuscripts,  94;  collections 
of,  amongst  the  ancients,  95;  query 
upon  the  mode  of  their  transmission 
and  their  correctness,  ib. :  use  of,  96; 
anecdotes  relative  to  the  effect  of,  97 ; 
objections  of  ingenious  men  to  sit  for, 


INDEX. 


407 


reprobated,  98;  Granger's  illustra- 
tions of,  ib. ;  Perrault's  "  Eloges  " 
confined  to  French,  ib.;  collection  by 
Paulus  Jovius,  99 ;  doubts  as  to  au- 
thenticity of  several,  ib,;  literary,  of 
himself,  by  St.  Evremond,  163;  in 
minute  writing,  366. 

Port  Royal  Society,  the,  i.  154;  their 
Logic,  or  The  Art  of  Thinking,  an  ad- 
mirable work,  ib. ;  account  of  its  rise 
and  progress,  ib. ;  many  families  of 
rank  erected  houses  there,  155 ;  per- 
secuted and  destroyed  by  the  Jesuits, 
156 ;  their  writings  fixed  the  French 
language,  ib. 

Poverty,  abridgment  of  histoiy  of,  by 
Morin,  i.  275 ;  regulations  regarding, 
among  the  Jews,  276;  among  the 
Greeks,  Romans,  and  Egyptians,  277 ; 
uncommon  among  the  ancients,  278; 
introduction  of  hospitals  for  the  re- 
lief of,  279. 

Prayer-books,  gross  illustrations  of, 
ii.  80,  31. 

Preachers,  jocular,  i.  337-345. 

Prediction,  political  and  moral,  de- 
termined by  certain  prognostics,  iv. 
157 ;  of  the  Reformation  by  Cardinal 
Julian  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  159; 
by  Erasmus  and  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh, 
160,  161;  of  Tacitus,  ib.;  of  Solon, 
161;  of  Charlemagne,  ib.;  Cicero's 
art  of,  162 ;  faculty  of,  possessed  by 
Du  Vair,  ib.;  principles  of,  revealed 
by  Aristotle,  163 ;  by  Mr.  Coleridge, 
166 ;  of  the  French  Revolution,  168 ; 
frequently  false,  171 ;  anecdotes,  172 ; 
of  American  Independence,  173; 
sometimes  condemned  as  false  when 
really  verified,  174;  caution  to  be 
observed  in,  175;  instances  of,  by 
vKnox,  176;  of  the  death  of  Henry 
IV.,  ib. ;  reflections  on,  177,  178. 

Prefaces,  frequently  superior  to  the 
work,  i.  128;  a  volume  of,  always 
kept  ready  by  Cicero,  ib. ;  ought  to 
be  dated,  130 ;  anecdote  of  Du  Clos's 
to  a  fairy  tale,  iii.  43. 

Preferment,  anecdotes  of,  ii.  164. 

Presbyterians,  their  conduct  under 
Charles  II.,  iv.  133 ;  their  intolerance, 
148. 

Press-money,  proposition  that  those 
who  refused  it  should  be  tried  by 
martial  law,  iv.  389,  and  note. 

Price,  Robert,  a  Welsh  lawyer,  inci- 
dents in  his  life,  iv.  343. 

Prince  Henry,  son  of  James  L,  re- 
sembled Henry  V.  in  his  features,  ii. 
365 ;  Dr.  Birch's  life  of,  ib. ;  anecdotes 
concerning,  366-374;  his  diary,  389. 


Printing,  art  of,  possessed  by  the  Ro- 
mans without  beiirg  aware  of  it,  i. 
95-130;  early,  ib. ;  probably  origi- 
nated in  China,  ib.;  general  account 
of  early,  130-134. 

Printers,  mention  of  early,  i.  133. 

Prints,  satiric,  iv.  42,  43. 

Proclamations,  against  long  swords 
and  deep  ruffs,  i.  303;  royal,  against 
buildings  in  London,  iv.  277 ;  to  en- 
force a  country  residence,  282;  never 

Sossessed  the  force  of  laws,  ib. ;  of 
[enry  VIII.,  285;  of  Mnry,  287;  of 
Edward  VI.,  ib  ;  of  Elizabeth,  288 ; 
of  James  I.,  289;  of  Charles  I.,  291; 
of  Charles  II.  against  vicious,  de- 
bauched, and  profane  persons,  ib. ; 
others  by  Charles  II.,  292, 
Profession,  the  choice  of  one  and  its 
influence  on  the  mind,  with  some 
illusti-ative  anecdotes,  iii.  221,  222. 
Proper  names,  orthography  of,  the 
uncertainty  of,  ii.  423;  anecdotes  and 
instances  of,  424-426. 
Protestantism,  once  existed  in  Spain, 
iii.  189. 

Proverbs,  use  of,  derided  by  Lord 
Chesterfield,  iii.  355 ;  records  of  the 
populace,  356 ;  existed  before  books, 
ib. ;  abound  in  the  most  ancient 
writers,  ib. ;  "  the  dark  sayings  of 
the  wise,"  357;  introduced  into  the 
Greek  drama,  358 ;  definition  of,  ib. ; 
influence  of,  over  a  whole  people, 
359;  collection  of,  by  Franklin,  360; 
inscribed  on  furniture,  361;  English, 
collected  by  Hey  wood,  ib. ;  a  speech 
of,  362 ;  an  era  of,  amongst  the  Eng- 
lish, 363 ;  long  favourites  in  France, 
ib.;  comedy  of,  ib.;  family,  365;  an- 
cient examples  of  the  use  of,  ib. ; 
some,  connected  with  the  characters 
of  eminent  men,  ib. ;  use  of,  by  poets, 
367;  Eastern  origin  of  many,  368; 
collection  of,  by  Polydore  Vergil  and 
Erasmus,  of  Spanish,  by  Fernandez 
Nunez,  of  Italian  and  French,  Eng- 
lish and  Scotch,  369,  370;  study  of, 
371 ;  illustrative  of  national  charac- 
ter, 371-376:  anecdotes  of  the  origin 
of  certain,  377-380 ;  historical,  382- 
388 ;  remarks  on  the  arrangement  of 
collections  of,  389. 

Prynne,  his  method  of  composition, 
iii.  305;  his  extraordinary  perseve- 
rance, ib. ;  title  of  the  catalogue  of 
his  writings,  305,  306;  copy  of  his 
works  bequeathed  to  Sion  College, 
306. 

Psalm-singing,  remarks  on,  iii.  233; 
first  introduction  of,  234;  T.  War- 


468 


INDEX. 


ton's  criticism  of,  ib. ;  history  of,  235- 
241 ;  practised  at  lordmayors  feasts, 
242. 

P Salmanazar,  his  extraordinary  lit- 
erary forgery,  iv.  214 ;  some  account 
of,  214-218. 

Pulteney,  Earl  of  Bath,  MS.  Memoirs 
of,  suppressed,  iii.  205. 

Punch,  his  ancient  origin,  ii.  292-294, 
and  note ;  origin  of  his  name,  ib.,  note- 

Punchinello. — See  Punch. 

Punning,  in  a  dictionary,  i.  398. 

Puns,  Cicero's,  i.  126. 

Puppet-shows  in  England,  iv.130, 131. 

PuRGATORY,Cardinal  Bellarmin's  trea- 
tise on,  i.  283. 

Puritans,  turn  bacchanalian  songs 
into  spiritual  ones,  ii.  322. 

Puritans  and  Precisians,  party  nick- 
names at  the  Reformation,  iii.  414. 

Pyrotechnics. — See  Fireworks. 


Q. 

Quadrio,  his  Universal  History  of  Po- 
etry, iv.  125 ;  his  ignorance  of  Eng- 
lish poetry,  126,  127;  his  opinion  of 
English  comedy,  129;  praises  our 
puppet-shows,  131. 

Queen  Mary  the  First,  her  marriage 
with  Philip  of  Spain,  ii.  151;  her 
letter  of  instructions,  ib. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  letter  of,  to  her  broth- 
er, Edward  VI.,  ii.  141 ;  her  exhibi- 
tion of  youthfulness  to  the  ambassa- 
dor of  the  Scottish  king,  144;  re- 
markable period  in  her  annals,  355  ; 
her  maiden  state,  ib. ;  real  cause  of 
her  repugnance  to  change  it,  356,  and 
note ;  her  artifices  to  conceal  her  res- 
olution, 357 ;  debates  of  the  Com- 
mons on  the  succession  to,  ib. ;  ad- 
dress to,  by  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and 
her  answer,  358,  359 ;  dispatch  of  the 
French  ambassador  on  this  occasion, 
359-362 ;  her  judicious  conduct,  364 ; 
her  conduct  towards  printers  and 
authors,  406 ;  her  dislike  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  successor,  iv.  234; 
account  of  her  death-bed,  236-238. 

Queen  Anne  Bullen,  anecdote  relative 
to  her  execution,  ii.  142,  143. 

Querno,  made  laureat  for  the  joke's 
sake,  ii.  135. 

Quince,  origin  of,  ii.  332,  note. 

Quodlibets,  or  Scholastic  Disquisi- 
tions, i.  115. 

Quotation,  remarks  on  the  use  of,  iii. 
168;  Selden's  precept  for,  violated 
by  himself,  169, 170;  Bayle's  remarks 
on  the  use  of,  170 ;  when  used  by  an 


eminent  author  often  appropriated 
by  an  inferior,  172;  value  of  the 
proper  application  of,  173. 

R. 

Rabbinical  Stories,  specimens  of, 
i.  185-192 ;  scripture  quoted  to  sup- 
port, 191. 

Rawleigh,  Sir  Walter,  composed  his 
History  of  the  World  in  prison,  i.  88; 
assisted  in  that  work  by  several  em- 
inent persons,  ib.;  author's  account 
of  his  chai'acter,  iii.  445 ;  Gibbon'3 
and  Hume's  observations  on,  447; 
cunning  practised  by,  ib. ;  anecdotes 
of,  447,  448;  account  of  his  return 
from  Guiana,  448,  449 ;  his  attempt 
to  escape,  450;  betrayed  by  Sir 
Lewis  Stucley,  455;  narrative  of  his 
last  hours,  459-466 ;  his  History  of 
the  World,  the  labour  of  several  per- 
sons, iv.  7-10;  note  on  Mr.  Tytler's 
remarks  on  the  author's  account  of, 
12 ;  notice  of  Oldys's  life  of,  431. 

Rantzau,  founder  of  the  great  library 
at  Copenhagen,  stanzas  by,  i.  53. 

Ranz  des  Vaches,  effect  of,  i.  364. 

Raynaud,  Theophilus,  his  works  fill 
twenty  folios,  and  ruined  his  book- 
seller," iii.  314;  notice  of,  315;  his  cu- 
rious treatises,  ib. 

Reformation,  origin  of,  iv.  20. 

Refutation,  a  Catholic's,  ii.  11,  12. 

Regeneration  of  material  bodies, 
iv.  187,  188. 

Relics  of  Saints,  bought,  sold,  and 
stolen,  i.  323 ;  treatise  on,  by  Gilbert 
de  Nogent,  ib.;  of  St.  Lewin,  324; 
of  St.  Indalece,  ib.;  of  St.  Majean, 
325;  of  St.  Augustin's  arm,  ib.;  flog- 
ging of,  ib. ;  miracles  performed  by, 
ib. ;  miraculously  multiplied,  326; 
anecdote  of  a  box  of,  presented  by 
the  Pope  to  Prince  Radzivil,  ib.; 
Frederick  the  Wise,  a  great  collector 
of,  327 ;  phial  of  the  blood  of  Christ 
sent  to  Henry  III.,  328 ;  fall  in  price 
of,  ib. ;  anecdotes  of,  ib, 

Religion,  state  of,  during  the  Civil 
Wars,  iv.  356-358;  illustrative  anec- 
dotes of,  358,  359;  contest  between 
Owen  and  Baxter  on,  360;  confusion 
of,  ib.;  a  colt  baptized  in  St.  Paul's 
cathedral,  363,  and  note;  anecdotes, 
363-365 ;  noticed  by  George  Wither 
the  poet,  366 ;  ordinance  of  the  Par- 
liament to  rectify  the  disorders  in, 
ib. 

Religionism  distinguished  from  re- 
ligion, iv.  131. 


INDEX. 


469 


Religious  Nouvellettes,  a  class  of 
very  singular  works,  ii.  27;  account 
of  one,  ib. ;  notice  of  one  discussing 
three  thousand  questions  concerning 
the  Virgin  Mary,  28;  Life  of  the 
Virgin,  31 ;  Jesuits  usual  authors  of, 
32;  one  describing  what  passes  in 
Paradise,  ib. ;  the  Spiritual  Kalen- 
dar,  33. 

Representation,  right  of,  not  fixed 
in  the  10th  century,  i.  233. 

Residences  of  literary  men,  notices 
of  several,  iv.  310-316. 

Reviews. — See  Literary  Journals. 

Revolutions,  maxim  o»,  iv.  178. 

Riccoboni,  a  celebrated  actor,  his  re- 
marks on  the  Italian  extempore 
comedy,  ii.  307 ;  anecdote  of,  310 ;  his 
inscription  on  the  curtain  of  his 
theatre,  ib. 

Rich,  a  celebrated  harlequin,  ii.  302. 

Richardson,  the  author  of  Sir  Charles 
Grandison,  remarks  on  him  and  his 
works,  ii.  224-228. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal  de,  his  general 
character,  iii.  89;  his  death-bed,  90; 
anecdotes  of  the  sinister  means  prac- 
tised by,  ib. ;  his  confessor  Father 
Joseph,  91-94;  projects  of  assassina- 
tion of,  95,  and  note;  drives  Father 
Caussin,  the  king's  confessor,  into 
exile,  96. 

Rive,  Abbe  de,  librarian  of  the  Duke 
de  la  Valliere,  iv.  250;  his  style  of 
criticism,  251;  his  collections  for 
works  never  begun,  ib. ;  his  observa- 
tions on  the  cause  of  the  errors  of 
literary  history,  253. 

Robinson  Crusoe,  remarks  on,  ii.  465 ; 
history  of,  traced,  465,  466 ;  written 
by  Defoe,  after  illness,  and  in  com- 
parative solitude,  467 ;  not  published 
till  seven  years  after  Selkirk's  ad- 
ventures, 468. 

Roc,  the,  of  Arabian  tales,  a  creature 
of  Rabbinical  fancy,  i.  189. 

Rochefoucault,  De  la,  remarks  on 
him  and  his  maxims,  i.  172. 

Rochelle,  expedition  to,  iii.  110 ;  prep- 
arations for,  ib. ;  frustrated  by  the 
death  of  Buckingham,  112. 

Romances,  the  offspring  of  fiction  and 
love,  ii.  119;  early,  ib.;  that  of  He- 
liodorus  denounced  in  a  synod,  120 ; 
forbidden  in  the  Koran,  121 ;  of  the 
Troubadours,  122 ;  modern  poets  in- 
debted to,  ib. ;  Le  Roman  de  Perce- 
forest,  123;  of  chivalry,  examples  of, 
124;  Italian,  126;  use  made  of  by 
poets,  127 ;  French,  ib. ;  Avent  out  of 
fashion  with  square  cocked  hats,128 ; 


modern  novels,  ib.;  histories  of,  129; 

D'Urfd's  Astraa,  130. 

Ronsard,  an  early  French  tragic  au- 
thor, ii.  199. 

Rosy-cross,  the  president  of,  proffers 
his  advice  to  Charles  I.,  iv.  392. 

Rousseau,  his  prediction  of*  the  French 
Revolution,  iv.  170,  171,  and  note. 

Royal  Promotions,  ii.  163-165. 

Royal  Society,  origin  of,  iii.  162-164. 

Rubens,  his  house  at  Antwerp,  iv.  315. 

Ruffs,  extravagances  in,  i.  303-309. 

Rump,  the  origin  of  the  term,  iv.  412, 
413;  three  stages  in  its  political  pro- 
gress, 414,  415;  songs  upon,  416; 
debate  of  the,  whether  to  massacre 
all  the  king's  party,  418, 419 ;  parallel 
between  their  course  of  conduct  and 
that  of  the  leaders  in  the  French  Rev- 
olution, 420-424. 

S. 

Sainte  Ampoule,  iii.  188,  note. 

Salmasius,  his  controversy  with  and 
abuse  of  Milton,  i.  221-223. 

Salvator  Rosa,  fond  of  acting  in  ex- 
temporal  comedy,  ii.  305. 

Sandricourt,  the  Sieur  de,  ruined 
himself  by  one  fete,  iv.  319-322. 

Sans  Culottes,  iii.  412. 

St.  Ambrose,  writes  a  treatise  on  vir- 
gins, ii.  83 ;  and  another  on  the  Per- 
petual Virginity  of  the  Mother  of 
God,  84;  his  chastisement  of  an 
erring  nun,  ib. 

St.  Ursula  and  the  Eleven  Thousand 
Virgins  all  created  out  of  a  blunder, 
i.  419. 

St.  Bartholomew,  apology  for  the 
massacre  of,  iv.  151-156. 

St.  Evremond,  literary  portrait  of,  by 
himself,  i.  163,  164. 

Satirists  may  dread  the  cane  of  the 
satirized,  ii.  119. 

Saturnalia,  institution  of  among  the 
Romans,  derived  by  Macrobius  from 
the  Grecians,  ii.  445;  dedicated  to 
Saturn,  ib. ;  latterly  prolonged  for  a 
week,  446;  description  of,  ib. ;  crept 
into  the  Christian  Church,  447,  448, 
and  note;  practised  in  the  middle 
ages,  448 ;  Feast  of  Asses,  ib. ;  "  De- 
cember liberties,"  450;  the  boy- 
bishop,  ib. ;  lord  of  Misrule,  451 ;  ab- 
bot of  Unreason,  452 ;  description  of  a 
grand  Christmas  held  at  the  Inns  of 
a  Court,  454,  455,  and  note;  the  hist 
memorable,  of  the  lords  of  Misrule 
of  the  Inns  of  Court,  455;  anecdote 
of  a  lord  of  Misrule,  456,  457;  the 


470 


INDEX. 


Mayor  of  Garratt,459 ;  regiment  de  la 
Calotte,  ib.,  and  note,  460;  republic 
of  baboonery,  460;  medals  used  for 
money  in,  iv.  30,  31. 

Sauntering,  i.  248. 

Savages,  various  usages  of,  at  meals, 

i.  243-245. 

Scaliger,  Julius,  his  singular  manner 
of  composition,  ii.  253. 

Scaramouches,  see  Pantomime. 
Punch  and  Zany,  prints  of,  ii.  292- 
294;  character  of,  invented  by  Ti- 
berio  Fiurilli,  299 ;  power  of  a  cele- 
brated, ib. 

Scarron,  account  of  his  life  and 
works,  ii.  94-102. 

Scenarie,  the  plots  of  extemporal 
comedies,  ii.  302 ;  description  of,  303, 
note ;  some  discovered  at  Dulwich 
College,  311. 

Scudery,  Mademoiselle,  composed 
ninety  romances,  i.  167 ;  panegyrics 
on,  168;  her  Great  Cyrus  and  "Map 
of  Tenderness,  169. 

Scudery,  George,  famous  for  compos- 
ing romances,  i.  169;  a  votaiy  of 
vanity,  ib. ;  author  of  sixteen  plays, 
170. 

Secret  History,  the  supplement  of 
history  itself,  iv.  294 ;  reply  to  an 
attack  on  the  writers  of,  295 ;  two 
species  of,  positive  and  relative,  296 ; 
the  true  sources  of  to  be  found  in 
MS.  collections,  297;  neglect  of  by 
historians,  298 ;  its  utility,  299 ;  of 
the  Restoration,  303 ;  of"  Mary,  the 
Queen  of  William  III..  305-308. 

Sedan  Chairs,  introduced  into  Eng- 
land by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham, 

ii.  195. 

Segni,  Bernardo,  his  history  of  Flor- 
ence, iv.  66. 

Serassi,  writes  the  life  of  Tasso,  iii. 
201;  finds  Galileo's  MS.  annotations, 
copies  them  and  suppresses  the  orig- 
inal, ib. 

Sermons,  printed,  Bayle's  saving  on, 

i.  444. 

Seymour,  William,  his  family  and 
character,  iii.  274;  enters  into  a 
treaty  of  marriage  with  the  Lady 
Arabella  Stuart,  275 ;  summoned  be- 
fore the  Privy  Council,  ib. ;  his  mar- 
riage, 276 ;  imprisoned  in  the  Tower, 
ib. ;  his  wife's  letter  to  him,  276, 277 ; 
his  escape,  282 ;  is  permitted  to  re- 
turn, 287. 

Shakespeare,  Fuller's  character  of, 

ii.  47. 

Shenstone,  the  object  of  his  poem  of 

the  Schoolmistress  misunderstood, 


iii.  261;  his  ludicrous  index  to,  265; 

his  character,  his  life,  and  his  works, 

420-434. 
Shoeing-horns,  iii.  30,  note. 
Silhouette,  a  term  not  to  be  found 

in  any  dictionary,  iii.  413 ;  originated 

in  a  political  nickname,  ib. 
Silk  Stockings,  pair  of,  presented  to 

Queen  Elizabeth,  i.  308. 
Silli,  iii.  215. 

Sneezing,  the  custom  of  saluting  after, 
i.  192 ;  attributed  to  St.  Gregory,  ib. ; 
Rabbinical  account  of,  ib.;  "anec- 
dotes concerning,  193. 

Snuff-boxes  the  rage,  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne,  i.  311. 

Solitude,  treatise  on,  by  Sir  George 
Mackenzie,  ii.  211-213;  necessary 
for  the  pursuits  of  genius,  ib.;  dis- 
comforts of,  214. 

Solomon,  accounted  an  adept  in  ne- 
cromancy, i.  187 ;  story  of  him  and 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  280. 

Songs  among  the  Grecians,  ii.  315; 
sayings  of  Fletcher  of  Saltoun,  and 
Dr.  Clerk  on,  316;  Greek  songs  of 
the  trades,  ib. ;  of  the  weavers  among 
the  English,  ib. ;  harvest  and  oar- 
songs  in  the  Highlands,  317 ;  of  the 
gondoliers,  ib. ;  Dibdin's,  318;  old 
English,  ib.;  Swiss,  320;  Italian, 
composed  at  Florence,  under  the 
Medici,  ib. ;  French  "  Chansons  de 
Vendange,"  320,  321;  parodied,  by 
Puritans,  322 ;  slang  or  flash,  known 
to  the  Greeks,  and  specimens  from 
Athenasus,  323,  324;  ancient  prac- 
tices in,  connected  with  old  English 
customs,  324;  political,  iv.  44. 

Sonnah,  the,  i.  177. 

Sotades  travestied  the  Iliad,  iii.  214, 
215. 

Sotties,  more  farcical  than  farce,  ii. 
21 ;  specimen  of  one,  22,  23. 

Sovereignty  of  the  seas,  ii.  245-247. 

Spanish  Etiquette,  instances  of  its 
absurdity,  i.  271,  272. 

Spanish  Poetry,  i.  161;  remarks  on, 
and  illustrative  quotations  of,  162; 
translation  of  a  madrigal  found  in  a 
newspapei*.  163. 

Speed,  the  historian,  suspicions  of  his 
originality,  iii.  202. 

Spenser,  Fuller's  character  of,  ii.  46. 

Spiders,  influence  of  music  on,  i.  361, 
362 ;  admired  as  food,  iii.  59,  note. 

Stanzas  to  Laura,  i.  313,  314. 

Starching,  origin  of,  i.  309. 

Steevens,  George,  the  Puck  of  com- 
mentators, iv.  198;  account  of  his 
literary  forgeries,  198, 199 ;  the  story 


INDEX. 


471 


of  Milton  and  the  Italian  lady  attrib- 
uted to,  200;  his  motives  for  omit- 
ting the  Poems  from  his  edition  of 
Shakespeare,  203;  his  trick  on  the 
antiquary  Gough,  205,  206. 

Stephens,  Robert,  divided  the  Bible 
into  chapter  and  vei'se,  iv.  355. 

Stern hold  and  Hopkins,  their  version 
of  the  Psalms,  iii.  234,  235. 

Stochastic,  a  term  for  a  moral  and 
political  diviner,  iv.  163. 

Stones,  presenting  representations  of 
natural  forms,  i.  329,  330. 

Streets  of  London,  origin  of  many  of 
their  names,  ii.  426-430. 

Stuart,  Arabella,  mistakes  of  histo- 
rians regarding,  iii.  268 ;  her  history, 
269-286. 

Stucley,  Sir  Lewis,  Vice-Admiral  of 
Devon,  accepted  a  smweillance 
over  his  kinsman,  Sir  Walter  Raw- 
leigh,  iii.  449;  his  base  treachery, 
455;  universally  shunned  in  conse- 
quence, 457;  convicted  of  clipping 
gold,  458 ;  his  miserable  death,  459. 

Student  in  the  metropolis,  the,  de- 
scription of,  by  Gibbon,  Rogers,  and 
Descartes,  i.  175. 

Study,  plans  of  historical,  ii.  258,  259. 

Style,  remarks  on,  in  the  composition 
of  works  of  science,  i.  147 ;  strictures 
on  the,  of  theological  writers,  ii.  179; 
on  that  of  Lancelot  Addison,  ib. 

Sugar-Loaf-Court,  origin  of  the 
name,  ii.  163. 

Suppression  of  MSS. — See  Manu- 
scripts. ^ 

Talmud,  many  copies  of,  burnt,  i.  101 ; 
a  collection  of  Jewish  traditions  oral- 
ly preserved,  177  ;  comprises  the 
Mishna,  which  is  the  text  of  the 
Gemara,  its  commentary,  ib. ;  gener- 
al account  of,  ib. ;  believed  apocry- 
phal, even  by  a  few  among  the  Jews, 
178:  time  of  the  first  appearance  of 
its  traditions  uncertain,  ib. ;  com- 
piled by  Jewish  doctors  to  oppose 
the  Christians,  ib.;  analysis  of,  by 
W.  Wotton,  ib. ;  two  Talmuds,  ib. ; 
committed  to  writing,  and  arranged 
by  R.  Juda,  prince  of  the  Rabbins, 
forming  the  Mishna,  179;  disputes 
and  opinions  of  the  Rabbins  on  the 
form  of  the  Mishna,  ib. ;  God's  study 
of,  ib. ;  curious,  from  its  antiquity, 
ib.v  specimens  of,  from  the  Mishnic 
titles,  179-185 ;  and  from  the  Gemara, 
183. 

Tasso,  various  opinions  on  the  respec- 
tive merits  of  him  and  Ariosto,  ii. 


54,  55;  Boileau's  criticism  on,  ib.; 
his  errors  national,  56;  his  verses 
sung  by  the  gondoliers,  ib. 

Taxation,  remarks  on  the  popular 
feeling  on,  in  ancient  and  modern 
times,  iv.  78,  79;  associated  with  the 
idea  of  tyranny,  79;  illustrative  an- 
ecdotes, 79,  80;  efficacy  of  Oftifig  u 
mitigated  term  for,  80;  gifts,  tribute, 
benevolences,  and  loans,  81-85 ;  Bur- 
leigh's advice  on,  86. 

Taylor,  Thomas,  a  modern  professor 
of  Platonism,  i.  295. 

Tea,  opposition  to  the  introduction  of, 

iii.  54 ;  present  of,  declined  by  the 
Russian  ambassador,  54 ;  Dutch  bar- 
gain for,  55;  introduction  into  Eu- 
rope, ib. ;  shop-bill  of  the  first  ven- 
dor of,  56. 

Thomas  Aquinas,  some  account  of 
the  works  of,  i.  118-120. 

Tichp.ourne,  Chidiock,  concerned  in 
Babington's  conspiracy,  ii.  347 ;  his 
address  to  the  populace  at  his  exe- 
cution, 353;  his  letter  to  his  wife, 
354;  verses  composed  by  him  the 
night  before  his  execution,  355. 

Timon  of  Philius,  his  parodies  of  Ho- 
mer, iii.  215. 

Titles,  origins  of,  and  anecdotes  con- 
cerning, i.  249;  book  of,  published 
in  Spain,  ib.;  Selden's  Titles  of 
Honour,  ib. 

Toleration,  practised  by  the  Ro- 
mans, and  inculcated  by  Mahomet, 

iv.  139;  caution  used  in  publishing 
works  on,  140;  early  English  advo- 
cates of,  ib.  and  note;  in  Holland, 
141 ;  facts  illustrative  of  the  history 
of,  142,  143;  condemned  by  all  par- 
ties, 144-146 ;  opinions  of  an  English 
clergyman  on,  148. 

Tom  o'  Bedlams,  account  of,  iii.  46- 
52,  and  notes ;  songs  of,  51,  52. 

Torture,  Felton  threatened  with,  iii. 
120;  its  frequent  use  in  England,  ib. 

Torquemada,  first  Spanish  inquisitor, 
in  fourteen  years  persecuted  80,000 
individuals,  i.  239. 

Traitors,  barbarous  mode  of  execu- 
tion of,  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time, 
ii.  351,  and  note. 

Trevoux. — See  Dictionary. 

Troubadours,  their  poems  and  their 
loves,  ii.  122. 

Trusler,  Doctor,  first  vendor  of 
printed  sermons  imitating  manu- 
script, ii.  70. 

Turner,  Doctor,  a  violent  opposition 
leader  in  the  second  Parliament  of 
Charles  I.,  iv.  377;  an  agent  of  the 


472 


INDEX. 


opposition  in  Parliament  against  the 
measures  of  Charles  I.,  394;  a  dis- 
appointed courtier,  ib.  note. 
Turkish  Spy,  the,  ii.  43 ;  John  Paul 
Marana,  the  author  of,  44. 

U. 

Urban  the  Eighth,  instances  of  his 
poetic  sensibility,  ii.  135. 

Usurers  of  the  17th  century,  notice 
of  the  practices  of,  ii.  332-346. 

UsuRY,contrary  opinions  on.  ii.  333,334. 

Utopia,  Sir  Thomas  More's,  missiona- 
ries proposed  to  be  sent  to,  i.  416. 

V. 

Vanbrugh,  the  architect  of  Blenheim, 
got  a  power  from  Lord  Godolphin  to 
contract  in  the  Duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough's name,  iii.  436;  produces  the 
power,  437:  his  depositions,  438,  439; 
attempt  of  the  Ducliess  of  Marlbor- 
ough to  charge  the  debts  of  Blen- 
heim on,  441 ;  conduct  of  the  Duchess 
towards,  442 ;  discovery  of  his  origin, 
443,  444. 

Vaccination,  strange  dread  of,  iii.  53. 

Varchi,  Benedetto,  his  "  Storie  Fior- 
entine,"  iv.  67;  remarks  of  Mr.  Meri- 
vale  on,  68,  note. 

Vasari's  History  of  Artists,  not  en- 
tirely written  by  himself,  iv.  10. 

Vatican,  library  of,  i.  52. 

Vaudevilles,  origin  of  the  name,  ii. 
321,  322. 

Verses,  follies  in  the  fantastical  forms 
of,  i.  385-391 ;  reciprocal,  392. 

Vicar  of  Bray,  story  of  the,  i.  273 ; 
Dr.  Kitchen,  Bishop  of  Llandaff, 
acted  the  same  part,  274 ;  type  of, 
iii.  191. 

Vida,  Jerome,  from  the  humblest  ob- 
scurity attained  to  the  episcopacy,  i. 
166. 

Vision  of  Alberico,  iii.  175 ;  of  Charles 
the  Bald,  176. 

Virgin  Mary,  images  of,  frequently 
portraits  of  mistresses  and  queens, 
ii.  29;  miraculous  letter  of,  31; 
Louis  II.  conveys  Boulogne  to,  ib. ; 
Life  of.  by  Maria  Agreda,  ib. ;  wor- 
ship paid  to,  in  Spain,  32;  system 
of,  in  7  folio  vols.,  34. 

Virginity,  St.  Ambrose's  treatise  on, 


Walker,  his  account  of  the  clergy  of 
the  Church  of  England  who  were  se- 
questered, &c-,  iv.  135. 

Walsingham,  Sir  Francis,  died  in 
debt,  iv.  78. 


Walworth,  Sir  William,  his  private 
motive  for' killing  Wat  Tyler,  iv.  399, 
note. 

War,  various  practices  in,  ii.  170, 171. 
Wat  Tyler,  anecdote  of,  iv.  399,  note. 
Whig  and  Tory,  origin  of  the  terms, 
iii.  418. 

Whitelocke,  his  Memorials,  ii.  395; 
his  Remembrances,  a  work  address- 
ed to  his  family,  lost  or  concealed, 
395,  396;  preface  to  the  Remem- 
brances preseiwed,  396 ;  omissions  in 
first  edition  of  his  Memorials,  iii.  206. 

Wife,  Literary,  i.  423 ;  of  Budaeus,  ib. ; 
of  Evelyn,  who  designed  the  frontis- 
piece to"  his  translation  of  Lucretius, 
424 ;  of  Baron  Haller,  ib. ;  Calphur- 
nia,  wife  of  Pliny,  ib. ;  Margaret, 
Duchess  of  Newcastle,  425 ;  extract 
from  her  epistle  to  her  husband,  ib. ; 
notices  of  the  wives  of  various  cele- 
brated men,  429-434. 

Wigs,  custom  of  using,  i.  301-311; 
Steele's,  311. 

Wilkins,  Bishop,  his  museum,  iv.  192. 

Winkelmann,  the  plan  on  which  he 
composed  his  works,  ii.  256. 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  his  magnificent 
houses,  iv.  72. 

Words,  introduction  of  new,  see  Ne- 
ology. 

Wood,  Anthony,  when  dying  caused 
his  papers  to  be  destroyed,  ii.  430; 
some,  however,  preseiwed,  ib. ;  se- 
cret history  of  the  Earl  of  Oxford 
drawn  from,  431 ;  compelled  to  dis- 
avow the  translation  of  his  book,  iii. 
211;  Gibbon's  opinion  of  his  dulness, 
opposed,  309,  note. 

Writing,  minute,  i.  365 ;  ancient  modes 
of,  ii.  180-183;  materials  used  for, 
184-186. 

Writing-masters,  iv.  48;  Massey's 
lives  of,  51 ;  anecdote  of  Tomkins,  a, 
54 ;  Peter  Bayles,  a  celebrated,  56 ; 
account  of  h'is  contest  with  David 
Johnson,  56-60. 

X. 

Xenocrates,  pupil  of  Plato,  attacked 
Aristotle,  i.  211,  212. 

Y. 

Yvery,  notice  of  the  history  of  the 
house  of,  iv.  341,  and  note. 

Z. 

Zany,  etymology  of  the  word,  ii.  294, 
and  notes. 


